


Rose of Stilwater

by MegaFreeman



Category: Saints Row
Genre: Alternate Canon, Canon-Typical Violence, Chaptered, Drug Addiction, Drug Use, Established Relationship, F/M, Gang Violence, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, M/M, Past Drug Use, Pre-Canon, Prostitution, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:42:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 27,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26292076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MegaFreeman/pseuds/MegaFreeman
Summary: The year is 2014, and the Third Street Saints have just robbed a wrong bank, causing them to move their operations to a neighboring city of Steelport until a criminal Syndicate is taken down there.However, while in the other city, things in Stilwater aren't quite going smooth. The Boss has appointed their cousin to take care of business there while they're out of city.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 4





	1. The City of Sin

The moon reflected off the water in the Stilwater River on this fine evening, as the citizens of this metropolis enjoyed themselves, either in the comfort of their homes or partying out in the rich nightlife of the city. It has been three years since the gang war in Stilwater has been ended by the Third Street Saints and the city has already recovered from it. After the corporate warfare with Ultor concluded, they came to a mutual understanding in which the Saints back down from causing chaos in Stilwater, and allow for Ultor Corporation to reconstruct any part of the city they want peacefully. In return, they get a split of the cash, to which the media giant turned the former gangbangers into pop-culture icons, with their own TV shows, movies, comics, video games, and music careers. This has proven to be very profitable for the corporation, who in return started benefiting a lot more from this deal than they originally thought. Saints were no longer just some kids on a block, being a Saint in Stilwater meant that you were classy, part of the premium lifestyle the city offered. Soon enough, majority of the city was Saints affiliated, with nightclubs, bars, gyms, and even clothing chains being associated with the Saints. The brand itself was worth millions of dollars, and Ultor made sure to come to every corner of the market with it, trying to capitalize as much as it was possible.

Purgatory, which long ago was a hotel that sank underground due to an earthquake in the 1950s, served as a main headquarters for the Third Street Saints during their gang war. It has since been renovated by Ultor during their Shivington Remodeling Project. Where once was an abandoned hotel and a church chapel, now stood a skyscraper decorated in purple. Unlike other cribs around the city which Saints only own a small part of, or just a penthouse on them, this one was owned 100% by the gang. It was one of the biggest morale boosters, and kids around the city were dying to get into the Saints just so they could hang out with all the most famous people in the city in what was once considered a poverty driven dump. Purgatory became one of the landmarks in Stilwater, blessing the skyline of the city. The place served now both as a base of operations, housing for the fellow Saints, different activity rooms like gyms and pools, and two different clubbing areas: one for public and one for the Saints members only. The housing was pretty decent, many of the Saints tended to have their hookups in it, but some have even decided to live there for themselves. As for the activity rooms, it was extremely popular among the gang. It was a free membership to gym and pool club for all the higher-ranking lieutenants, which allowed them to have a place where they could work out without being bothered by public. All of the lieutenants almost exclusively work out in this private gym of theirs.

As for nightclub section; the public bar was pretty basic, it was locked to the first 2 floors of the crib that any individual could access it for a right price, however, the true enlightenment was the private Saints exclusive bar. It was located in the top floors from which you could see all corners of Stilwater through the windows, and it could only be accessed by the members the Boss herself would approve, which was quite a lot of people. The bar had everything, the place itself was pretty spacious, and of course, a lot of stripper poles. The only thing above the nightclub was the Boss’ private quarters, but nobody is allowed there, even Boss herself barely goes in.

Stilwater itself grew too; and the Saints have been embedded into the city’s history. As Ultor went on the establish more of the city’s foundry, by finishing the reconstruction project of the Shivington district, building a few more offices within downtown area of the city, and renovating many more minor projects, Saints have remained a great part of their brand image. No longer were they just keeping orange into their focus, and instead started putting a lot of purple into the city. Whatever part of the city you would wind into, you will end up finding a bit of purple hidden into it. Along with the Saints becoming international known for their faces all around the world, tourists started pouring their money into the city. People would come all the way from Australia just have their pictures taken outside the great Purgatory, and not to mention pour incredibly large sums of money into the brand by paying for the exclusive Saints venues that could only be found within the city.

The Saints brand was a much larger moneymaker for the corporation than they hade originally thought when they were signing the gang on the board, and the gangsters managed to get a huge chunk of that into their own pockets too. With the image that the top dogs of the Saints had already established in Stilwater, it didn’t take long for Ultor to find perfect positions within the mainstream media and world where the lieutenants could grow and promote their own brand.

Shaundi wasn’t a socialite, but she had the charms of one. It didn’t take long for Ultor to turn her into the next generation sex icon. The corporation gave the party girl everything she needed in order to become one. To name a few, she was given modelling roles for the front covers of multiple major fashion magazines, her own lingerie and underwear lines designed in her own image, starred as a female lead in several blockbuster movies, and even managed to get her very own dating show called ‘I wanna sleep with Shaundi’. No longer was she a laid-back pants hater, and now had her very own luxurious image to maintain. Even though the pop icon would suggest she left her reckless lifestyle behind because it’s hard to manage it alongside the brand, the truth was a bit different for it was the family she found within the Saints that managed to give her a feeling of security when it came to letting go of the past, and continuing forward. What once was a college dropout that had no purpose in the world, became a symbol of femininity around the globe.

On the other hand, Pierce was struggling with his new fame. He got it, but not in a way he wants it. Thanks to the generosity of the Boss, as well as her fear of being in the center of the public’s attention, Pierce got to be the face of the Saints. His tactician mindset, as well as a craving to be noticed, made him a perfect fit to be the spokesperson to the Saints brand. He managed to get himself several designer lines that are actually selling quite well among the rich and middle class people, and the reality TV found him as such a likable person, to the point where he would constantly be offered to star in other reality TV shows to boost the ratings. However, Boss’ third-in-command didn’t actually find that enjoyable, since he was eager to pursue the music career; similar to the one Aisha had before her death. The man struggled in this field since he insisted on writing his own music instead of taking advice from the Kingdom Come Records, successfully part of the Ultor Family since 2008, which didn’t go well with the audience considering that his taste in music was a bit dated. Still, as ever dedicated to his plans, Pierce continued to try, hoping one day he’ll strike a gold mine and manage to be one of the music legends, alongside people like Beyonce and Ciara. Let this not confuse you, Pierce still rose to become one of the most lovable faces and personalities in entire world, out of all the Saints, most of the acting roles were actually offered to Pierce, but while he managed to find his fame there, he was struggling to find it in the music, that he dreamed of having ever since he was a little boy growing up in the streets of the Sunnyvale Gardens

Gat had a surprisingly easy time adapting to the new life style of glamour and status quo. The man had this geeky side to him, which allowed for him to actually come to Ultor with his own ideas for the Saints image. Soon enough, Johnny Gat was adapted in an action hero role for multiple Saints IPs, including the popular comic book series, Gangstas in Space. He was offered a lot more on top of that: modelling gigs, reality TV shows, a singing career. But the man refused, and he was completely fine with the fame he got now, as well as the praise from his fan community.

And lastly, the Boss had a great time adapting to the new celebrity life. It has been an extremely long time since Lina was that scared kid, caught in a corner of the street on the wrong end of a gun barrel. She went from being a shy girl that was too afraid to even speak, to the biggest lunatic in the entire country. However, despite her reputation when taking over Stilwater, the Boss simply wasn’t that person anymore. The anger she held within her after being betrayed by the original Saints finally started fading away, and what once was the epitome of wrath became an empty shell. With all that new money to her name, Lina was able to go out and seek a therapist to help her cope with her emptiness in a more healthier manner than being the main villain in the city, and find her own inner peace. After years of torment, Lina finally let herself spread her wings and embrace the fun having, geeky persona she original had all those years ago. It helped being surrounded by her best friends, or as she liked to call it, her new family. Her acting career went smooth after that. She was an action movie star, which appealed to the kid inside her that got left behind in 2006, even going on to star in a TV show based on her very own comic book series called ‘Madame Frost’. She wasn’t a stranger to other projects though, so she starred in a movie adaptation of Benjamin King’s book, Regicide, where she played her younger self. The movie was a box office hit, which prompted Ultor to develop the Third Street Saints’ origin story into its own movie called ‘Saint’s Row’. The movie would show their victory in the Stilwater’s gang war of 2011, which would have the Saints themselves star in it.

Saints have started training for their starring roles in the movie, and even brought along their co-star Josh Birk, best known for his role of Benjamin Nyte in the hit vampire show Nyte Blayde. Originally, his involved with the Saints brand wasn’t planned by neither Ultor or the producers, instead they wanted to have some a lot more famous vouch for the Saints brand; like DiCaprio or Johnny Depp, but Pierce himself vouched for Josh Birk’s involvement. The man was aware of the cash his fangirls would bring to the brand, and seeing as the face of the Saints managed to actually have a guest appearance in Nyte Blayde, he managed to meet Joshua and actually get to know him as a passionate, funny guy, with a lot of potential. Pierce was convinced he would make a great Third Street material. However, before anything became official for the movie, they still needed to train the new kid for the role and what it means to be an actual Saint, as well as refresh their own instincts when it came to action. The Boss had an idea that a perfect way to warm up the Saints for their parts in the movie, as well as introduce Josh what the role is about, would be to return back to the old ways after 3 years of being in front of camera, and rob a bank just for the thrill of it. Saints never before intentionally went after the banks for the goal of stealing from them, Lina still thought activity like this would be a great teambuilding, while making sure that her fellow lieutenants still had that old criminal spark in them.

However, the Saints ran into a problem during their heist as they accidentally targeted the bank owned by an international crime organization known as the Syndicate. This resulted in them getting arrested, despite the money they paid to the cops to ignore them. This lead the main lieutenants and the Boss to move their base of operations to Steelport, which meant Shaundi, Pierce and Boss won’t be returning until the Syndicate is down, as for Johnny… Needless to say, Saints couldn’t leave their home turf, their base of operations and headquarters, unsupervised in case the Syndicate goes after their home while they’re occupied. They couldn’t know how big this illusive organization actually was, but it certainly was big enough to set up their entire operation in the heart of Stilwater without anyone from the gang actually noticing it. The city needed protection, and they needed better than to wonder aimlessly while Syndicate is at war with them; the Saints needed a leader in Stilwater.


	2. Bloom

It was 11 in the evening in Stilwater. The sky above the city was clear of any clouds, as the stars were shining brightly. Last couple of days have been particularly warm with a moderate humidity, but not enough to call it unbearable. Still, the people expected it to rain any day now.

Rosalind was laying on the coast of the city, more accurately, the suburban part of it. She was relaxing on the ground besides her motorcycle and was stargazing, as she was sipping her Rutherford branded beer. It came from a brewery located in a small town in the south Illinois, wasn’t as popular of a brand as many others were, but it was pretty popular within the gang. Rosalind first got attached to it when she arrived in the city, everyone in the gang would constantly go out and drink it, so she started doing it alongside them. She never really drank much of anything else and this was enough for her. The young girl was thinking about her life, and her dedication to the Third Street Saints.

You see, unlike any other person in the Saints, Rosalind and Lina had a special relationship. Their mothers were sisters, so unlike anyone else in the Third Street Saints, Lina and Rosalind were additionally connected by blood; they were cousins. As a younger of the two by 2 years, Rose always looked up to Lina. The girls grew up together in the small city in Georgia known as Stanmore, and somehow, the Boss was an inspiration and an icon to her younger cousin. She became sort of an older sister figure to her, which helped her a lot in keeping her sanity, since Rosalind only lived with her mother, who was very neglectful to her. So, she tried to be as much around Lina as she could, always drooling over everything that Lina did and deeming it super.

Rosalind first joined the Saints way back in 2006, but under a different circumstance. She was this ginger, skinny girl with green eyes when she first arrived in Stilwater. She didn’t join because she felt the need to protect the city, or because she had no-where else to go, she joined following Lina’s footsteps. After the Boss spent several months in Stilwater, her little cousin decided to visit for the summer, but upon reaching the city, she found to be surprised that her cousin joined a street gang, and was at the time in a coma caused by some gang related accident of sorts. She was fortunate enough to run into Lina’s friend Johnny Gat, and her boyfriend Isaac, who were some of the last few remaining members of the ruling gang in Stilwater, the old Third Street Saints. Their leader has disappeared, alongside their second in command, and the next person on the line of chain, someone that Julius personally trusted, was Lina. However, her leadership was soon after cut short, as she went into a coma while trying to debate the release of Julius. Johnny, trying desperately to keep the family he found in the gang whole, appointed the playa’s cousin as their new leader. Gat was afraid of leadership, he never felt as if he was fit enough to fill those huge shoes that come with running the gang, and was terrible at thinking through a plan and calling shots, so he was desperate for just about anyone to lead it, decided to appoint Rose, who was just 16 at the time, to run a gang, thinking she would be as natural at the crime as her cousin was.

Miraculously, Rose proved herself to be an excellent leader. She was capable of making the right calls and to patiently listen to her crew, however, her fame was short lived. Her leadership only lasted three weeks, after Gat got arrested for a failed attempt to assassinate Troy Bradshaw, who was revealed to be an undercover cop, and Isaac got killed in the process of defending his friends, the Saints were doomed. Rosalind was now exposed, with no friends on her side to protect her, she was quickly apprehended by the police, ending the Saints' reign of terror of Stilwater once and for all… Or so they thought.

When she got arrested, Troy considered it just to be kid in a wrong place and didn’t want to make her face consequences for the rest of her life for a small mistake. He set her free, but made sure to send her back home to Georgia first. He didn’t want any more kids getting hurt in a pointless war. It wasn’t until Lina woke up from a coma in 2011 that Rosalind went back to Stilwater, and joined the Saints once again. Lina had already heard of Rosalind’s leadership, and welcomed her little ‘sister’ in the gang with open arms, even though half of the city was already under Saints control at the point. She spent first months and some doing small jobs, before being let in on bigger ones, where she'd proven herself strong enough to lead a group of Saints into an enemy stronghold, and come back with the whole gang alive. It was uncertain if it was dumb luck, or whether she was just a natural leader, but whatever it was, Lina found her to be quite a helpful addition to the team, and even considered her a great replacement in case something were to happen to her, and god forbid, the Boss wasn’t capable of leading the gang anymore.

Her rest was soon after interrupted by an incoming call from a familiar number; the one belonging to the Boss herself. Rose set her beer aside, and got up to a sitting position to answer the call.

“Sup, cuz?” Rose spoke into the speaker, with a slight smile on her face. She was always happy to hear her cousin’s voice.

“Hey, Rosie… How are you doing?” Boss checked on her cousin, however, the tone of her voice was unusual; not the tone she’d usually talk to her cousin in.

“Just relaxing in the park right now.” She paused, not missing the opportunity to steal a sip from her beer “Heard from Pierce y’all are in Steelport?”

“Yeah…” Boss replied “I was actually calling you about that,” she sighed “but I need you to keep an eye on the Saints while we take care of things here…” The Boss paused for a second “Keep an eye on the gang for me.”

“Is that so?” Rosalind got curious “What’s so important that you have to stay there?”

“It’s Johnny…” Lina paused, followed by a sigh. She had an incredible hard time saying it. “They killed him.”

“What?” Rose’s heart stopped for a second, as the shock hit her from hearing the news. Her friend, Johnny Gat, has died. He was her friend, one of the first people she met in Stilwater. “I… I don’t know what to say…”

“Yeah… So we need to stay here and finish the job.”

“I’m comi-“

“No.” Lina interrupted Rosalind before she could even finish her thought “There’s enough of us here. What I need from you is to make sure the Saints don’t fall apart in Stilwater.” The Boss stated “Can I trust you with that?”

Rose sighted, and made a short pause while gazing at the calm water in front of her. “Fine…” It hurt her that she couldn’t avenge her friend, but her help was needed somewhere else. “I’ll inform the rest.”

“You’re an angel.” Lina replied, she considered anyway on asking Rosalind to do it. “Will you be alright?”

“Yeah… I will.” She said “I got to get going now. Going to tell others now.”

“Good luck. You’re strong, you can do it.”

“Yea… Bye.

Rosalind hung up on the Boss after saying her goodbyes, and wiped away her tears. She thought for a second about how she just lost a friend, and a remarkably close one. She couldn’t believe, since the day the two met, Gat has been this indestructible brick house that nobody could bring down. He could get shot, stabbed, set on fire, and still managed to come out of situation as strong as he was before. Saints have been out of danger of getting killed for quite some time now, so the thought of some of them, especially the main lieutenants, dying in such a sudden way didn’t cross anyone’s mind within the gang. And now, Rosalind was left with a task of informing everyone of this. The girl regretted right now offering to inform everyone herself. She barely kept her head in order, and was pretty stunned. Now she must be the emotional support, the support she so desperately requires herself too, to everyone else.

She thought for herself that it’s better to tell them sooner than later, she decided to call for a quick lieutenant meeting. The ginger wiped off one more tear, before picking up her phone and dialing her friend Jonathan’s number.

“Howdy.” He answered the phone call after a short ring. His voice over the phone was soft and quiet. He had a bit of a southern accent in his tone.

“Yo, Jonathan. What are you up to?” She replied, trying to smooth him into the news as best as possible.

“Nothin’ much. We were watching a movie, but then darling fell asleep so I’m watching by myself now.”

“Cute…” Rose was hesitant to decide if she should ruin the beautiful moment Jonathan was having with is lover, but she couldn’t keep him in the dark “Hey, could you make it to the HQ for an emergency briefing?”

“Emergency?” His tone got a bit sharper “How big is it?”

“Pretty big. The Boss left me in charge.” Despite being cousins, Rosalind liked to refer to Lina as ‘The Boss’ around other people as a way to glorify her role model even more.

“Yeah, lemme jus’ grab my keys and I’m on the way.”

“Good. Could you maybe give a call to other lieutenants too?” She sighed, she knows not telling them herself was a bad idea, but she really needed some help with this new, scary thing.

Jonathan chuckled over the phone. “Sure thing, pardner.”

“Thanks.” She paused for the second. “See you at the crib then.”

Jonathan was one of the Saints within Lina’s gang. He was a bit more special than anyone else. For starters, he would spend most of his time dressed as a cowboy and wearing some silly cowboy hat. And he has been doing this since he was around 14 years old. The cowboy joined the gang back in 2011; first or second week since the Third Street Saints started reforming, and since then his job has mainly consisted of controlling the drug market in Stilwater. Being a really experienced drug user, he was perfect for knowing what product was good and how to push it best around Stilwater, and he had great communication with the buyers, as well as the dealers.

Just like Lina and Rosalind, Jonathan also came to Stilwater from Georgia when he heard the news of his best friend waking up from the coma. The Boss and him went through a lot when they were growing up together, such as getting stoned and getting into all sorts of troubles. They completed each other throughout their entire childhood, all until the Boss moved away to Stilwater in 2006, and shortly after went into a 5-year long coma. Hearing the news of his friend defying death prompted Jonathan to leave his hometown and come see her, eventually agreeing to join into the Saints. Thanks to him, Saints have managed to establish a pretty hefty drug trafficking business.

Considering the cowboy was a great, as well as trusted friend of Lina; Rose had plenty of chances back in a day to get to know him better. It was uncertain if she trusted him only because Lina did, or if the two had any close relationships of their own, but the two do respect each other. He might have had no blood relations to Lina, but the two had an extremely fond attachment between each other, which caused Rosalind to see Jonathan as sort of an older, dysfunctional brother.

Rose chugged down the last few drops of beer she had left in the bottle, and threw it towards the beach. The ginger got up from the grassy surface, and picked up her custom motorbike helmet that was sitting next to her. “Here we go.” She wasn’t sure how many days, weeks, or maybe even months, will she be in charge, but she was praying to be able to handle the task in front of her. Rosalind got onto her bike and revved the engine, about to get on her way across town to the Purgatory.

* * *

The Boss’ prodigy arrived in front of the Purgatory nightclub. She could see the line of people waiting at the entrance to be admitted into the public nightclub. She thought, "Oh if they only knew", before continuing to the Saints underground garage entrance. She drove her bike through the garage door, and parked it into the spot she usually parked it. The girl recognized some of the cars parked there; she knew that the people she asked for had already arrived and were waiting for her.

Rosalind walked inside the personnel elevator located in the garage, and turned towards the button panel. Ever since renovations, Purgatory has been one of the biggest skyscrapers in Stilwater, standing tall at 90 floors. The ginger pressed on the button to take her on the floor reserved for the Saints briefing room; the 70th floor. She entered the code to access the room, 9-4-1-7, which was the code only the lieutenants with the access to the briefing room knew about.

The elevator ride began, as Rosalind was still crafting the words she was going to use when announcing that the king of Saints has fallen. She closed her eyes, as she felt them starting to tear up, and thought about the best, as well as the nicest, way to ease the rest of them into the news.

Finally, she had reached the 70th floor, and the door opened to reveal 3 people waiting for her in the room, causally chatting and hanging out between each other.

“I still think madam is better.” Jonathan said to the brunette in the briefing room, who waited for the meeting to start alongside him.

“You’re being ridiculous. That doesn’t matter at all.” The brunette replied to the cowboy. She was shorter than both Jonathan and Rosalind, but wore high enough heels to be at their eye level; her purple dress dragging over the floor

“But it does, Thera. If ya present yourself as scary, they will find ya intimidating. Hence, nobody will try any funny business and turn on you. Plus, it already would fit neatly into your dressin’ style.” Jonathan suggested to her. The conversation they were having was about Thera’s authority within the gang and the city. More precisely, he was suggesting for Thera to start referring to herself as ‘Madam’ in order to present herself classier and more mature. “Tell her, Donnie.”

“Why are you dragging me into this?” The car mechanic asked with a sad tone in his voice, just to be interrupted by another man.

“None of this matters.” Said the bald man, with his arms crossed and a neutral facial expression, as it was most of the time. People were rarely able to see his eyes as he always kept his sunglasses on.

“It doesn’t, Mister Fuego?” Replied the cowboy with snark, teasing the man for his own codename.

“Quiet down, the lieutenant is here.” Fuego, also known by the other lieutenants as Emmanuel, pointed towards Rosalind as she entered the briefing room.

Jonathan turned around from his conversation and moved towards the ginger “Well, howdy.” He smiled at her, and he gave her a hug with a small pat on a back. “Congrats. Thought, I’ll let you do the honors.”

“Trust me, it’s not that good, Jon.” She said, accepting the man’s hug without giving it back. After about seven seconds, she broke the hug and approached closer to the table in the center of the room. “Is everyone here?”

“Macy said she has some paperwork to finish.” Thera responded to the newly appointed Boss’ question.

“Thank you, Mrs. Papalia.” She looked around to count down everyone just for her own sake, as the lieutenants were getting into their seats.

Rosalind remained on her feet, and started to address the entire group. “Alright, I’ll be quick. Boss called and said she had some business to attend to outside the city with the rest of the lieutenants. She asked me to take over the gang for her while out of town” The news of this didn’t come to surprise to anyone. The Boss has been very vocal about Rosalind being next on the chain of command if neither her nor Gat were able to lead the gang.

“You called up this meeting just for that?” Emmanuel interrupted her.

“No, be patient. I wanted you all to brief me on gang activity.” She looked at Manny while saying that, before focusing her view on Jonathan “Jonathan, how is the drug business going?”

Jonathan leaned forward from laying back onto his chair and he started to talk. “Pretty smoothly. Sales’ been boomin’ just like previous few months. Tobias is flyin' the latest supply drop to Canada, left this mornin'. As for the locals, no dealer has been givin' me problems, and thanks to Macy's help, Purgatory bartender are dealin' candy for us now." The cowboy paused for a second to recount his thoughts and see if he can think of anything else "Guess business with cartel's been smooth too... College kids and housewives can't get enough of our kush and... Well, I reckon that to be everything."

"Thank you, sweetie." Rose replied to his statement as the man laid back into his chair and raise his legs on the table, without forgetting to wink at her. "Mrs. Papalia, what about your, ummm, dealings I guess?"

"Very good.” Thera replied. Rosalind was still a bit uncomfortable with Thera’s business, despite being in a gang for so long. Thera was a pimp, and her job as a lieutenant within the Saints is to keep order of all the prostitution the gang deals with. She has some of the biggest competition out of all lieutenants, but she doesn't complain. Her secret is to be friendly with all the girls, so that they would be loyal to her for the kindness you can hardly find in other pimps. This was mainly because before becoming a pimp, she used to be a prostitute herself, working under Helmers who had a good relationship with the Saints, and for some odd reason was respected by the Boss. After he passed out from a heart attack, Thera took over and decided to work with the Saints more actively. Around town, she's known for offering some of the finest working conditions out of all the pimps in town. She runs the Diamond Pillow Strip Club, located in the Shivington district, but more commonly used by the Stilwater citizens as a brothel instead. "I moved some of my prostitutes from the private club of Purgatory to the public one considering the Saints tend to come to me personally. Street work is fine, but for some reason I get less clients from the downtown."

"Okay, what about working with other Saints aligned bosses?" Rosalind asked, feeling a bit too rude to say pimp.

"No problems there. A lot of positive feedback for my alliance with Madam Wu too." As she said that, Jonathan snickered from his chair, as he leaned left, towards Thera.

"What was that? Madam Wu?" He whispered to the pimp with a smirk on his face. But Thera only rolled her eyes at him before Rosalind moved onto other two lieutenants.

“Manny, what about you?”

“No contracts against the Saints; four targets eliminated in the last month.” Fuego gave a short and simple answer to the question as usual. He wasn’t a type of guy that would drag things for too long like Jonathan tends too. He joined the Saints shortly after the war in Stilwater ended and he needed a place to lay low. He was an enforcer for a foreign gang and would occasionally do dirty work for them until he went rogue. Now, the Saints use him as their own personal assassin/hitman that keeps order in Stilwater for them. Unlike the assassins working for Ultor, Fuego answers to the Saints only. He was a cold, distant person, but the Boss had a soft spot for him.

“Short and simple… okay…” The ginger wasn’t the most comfortable with Manny, as he was a complete polar opposite of her. He was an unfriendly person, who according to Rose, was quite rude and seemed evil; which is ironic coming from someone who glorifies the gang culture as much as she does. “Donnie?”

“It’s okay, I guess. Some guys have been giving me trouble, but Boss’ boys managed to keep them away.” Donnie was the newest member of Boss’ inner circle. When Boss started seeking therapy at the end of the Second Stilwater Gang War, halfway through her sessions, after finally learning to control her emotions without being a constant ball of fire, Lina decided to be a bigger man and apologize to Donnie for all the trauma she inflicted. Ever since then, he became sort of her own mechanic, taking her car to his place. Soon, everyone in the gang started going to his workshop, and eventually, he was considered to be one of the Saints by the gang, despite never officially joining himself. “I still don’t understand why I’m here…”

“Because you’re one of us now.”

“Really? I never really felt like I joined or anything.”

“Well, feel it. You’re a Saint.” Rosalind replied to the mechanic, he didn’t mind it much because it was a better alternative than to get killed, and the money of working with the Saints was good. Rosalind looked around the room and noticed that she ran out of people to report to her “So, where’s Macy? Is she coming soon?”

“Lemme text her.” Jonathan said, pulling out his smart phone, which had a cracked screen as always.

Macy was the Purgatory’s manager. She’s been with the Saints for a very long time; almost since Lina woke up. Back in a day, she used to be a student at the Stilwater University that majored in Business and Economics. She joined the Saints originally because her father was in the original Saints before getting killed by the Carnales. Macy’s motivation for joining Lina’s Saints was to rid the city of gang violence like her dad wanted her to; so his legacy wouldn’t be wasted.

When Purgatory was officially renovated as the nightclub, it was originally assigned to be ran by an Ultor employee to run it, but the Boss was insistent that the entire building should be ran by the Saints, so the Boss ended up getting Macy a job at the Purgatory, as a member of the Saints with actual knowledge of how to run a business. Rumors have it that she got the job only because she slept with the Boss; but the Boss respected her a lot more than that. Nobody messed with her, unless they wanted their stay in Purgatory privileges to get terminated.

“Yup, she ain’t comin’ yet.” Jonathan said as he was focused on reading the reply he got on the phone. “Says she has to finish some paperwork first.”

“Well, I guess we should get on the important news without her then…” Rose said, as she was getting ready to drop the news of the tragedy that struck the Third Street Saints. The girl closed her eyes for the second and she was trying to convince herself she was strong enough to do it. She opened her eyes to see her listeners expected for her something to say. Jonathan was on tip of his chair and he leaned in, Emmanuel was having his usual resting bitch face, as Thera was getting ready to light her cigarette. Donnie seemed to be the calmest one, considering he was still pretty confused about why he was here in the first place. "It's about Johnny, they killed him." The ginger's eyes started tearing up as she said that, and as much as she wanted to drop on the floor and cry it out, she had to stay strong.

"WHAT!?" The cowboy and the hitman exclaimed in unison, with the identical gesture of getting up from their chair.

"I- No, I need to make a call. I'll... I'll be right back." Jonathan said he started walking toward the balcony for a quick break.

“Jonathan… no, wait…” Rosalind started walking towards him, as she was interrupted on the halfway to the balcony.

“What do you mean he’s dead? He can’t die.” Emmanuel yelled out at her as he was getting ready to go out.

“The bank heist, Manny. It was a setup. Boss and Shaundi barely got out alive.”

The man gruntled, as he sat back down into his chair. “And we’re just suppose to sit here and do nothing?”

“No, we are to sit here and keep things in check in Stilwater.” She turned around, and took two steps towards him “Or do you want to call the Boss and tell her yourself that you don’t trust her decisions?”

Emmanuel grunted at the comment, and with a frown on his face replied “Fine.”

“Good.” Rosalind soon afterwards went outside to the balcony, to check up on Jonathan.

“You should be nicer to the girl. She has a lot on her shoulders.” Thera defended Rose to the hitman. She knew a thing or two about how it feels to suddenly take over someone as a leader. The task isn’t easy at all, and can be really stressful at the beginnings.

“Well, bullshit.” Emmanuel, however, wasn’t happy with Rosalind’s leadership. “It should be someone stronger, someone with a clean head. She’s barely old enough to even drink.”

The pimp took a drag of her cigarette, which she has been silently smoking for a past minute “Older than when the Boss started the gang.” She stated “Age has nothing to do with her leadership skills. She just needs few days to adjust.”

“Please, you don’t even care if the Saints will sustain her.”

“Oh, but I do.” Mrs. Papalia got up from her chair and walked towards the 200 gallon fish aquarium in the corner of the room “If Saints aren’t under control, my business isn’t under control.”

“Whatever.” Manny paused for a second before leaning onto the table “Then why aren’t you worried about Johnny’s death?”

The pimp mistress turned around and looked at the bald man. “Oh, I am devastated about his death.” She took a drag of her cigarette “I never knew him that much well, never had a proper chat with him. I regret that, but I forgot how to cry a long time ago.”

The man grunted and rolled his eyes. He didn’t appreciate when he was being lectured a lot.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the balcony, Jonathan leaned onto the railing as he stared into the phone he held in his hands. He was thinking about everything, and if he should call someone on the phone and talk about Gat’s death. He couldn’t keep emotions inside him for too long; it made him anxious. Luckily for him, it didn’t take too long for Rosalind to check on him.

“Hey… How are you holding?” She approached slowly to the ledge and rubbed his shoulder as she stood next to him.

“I don’t know.” He sighed. “I didn’t think it was possible for Gat to die.”

“Yeah… I had the same feeling. He was indestructible, a walking legend.”

“He taught me so much.” The cowboy said, placing down his phone on the flat part of the railing, and reached down to his boot to pull a knife out of it. “He gave me this when I first arrived.” It wasn’t a unique knife. It was a short knife with a wooden handle. Jonathan has kept it since inside his boot as sort of a last resort. “I never used it ‘gainst anyone, I preferred my gun,” He chuckled “but it was handy with coke lines.”

Rose chuckled alongside him, followed by about twenty seconds of silence, when Jonathan finally spoke again “It feels so unfair to not be able to even say a goodbye.”

“I don’t know.” She gazed into distance. “We’ll have a funeral for that, but I don’t want to say goodbyes at all.”

“Neither do I, but you get the idea.”

“Do you think he’s watching us right now?” Rosalind looked up into the sky, thinking how Gat might be looking down on them right now from the heaven, and smiling at them for being strong, but Jonathan was pretty skeptical about that; he didn’t believe in afterlife.

“I dunno.” He sighed once again. He didn’t feel like getting into an argument about afterlife “I just don’t know what to do. I want to cry, I want to laugh, I want to break somethin’…”

“Yeah, this all must be really hard on you.” She looked at him in the eyes and rubbed his shoulder. “Why don't you go home and rest? It’s pretty late.”

“I will… I just need a minute.” The cowboy picked up his phone again and looked at his contacts. “I still have to tell him. I don’t want him getting the news from the media in the mornin’. I don’t even know how.” He sighed “And he looked so cute sleeping tonight.”

In an attempt to make Jonathan happier and drive his mind away from the tragedy, she tried to steer the topic. “You know, I would’ve never thought in million years that you would end up with a man.”

Jonathan has been in a committed relationship with another man for about three years now. The two of them met within the gang, as they were both on Boss’ drug team. It first started out as Jonathan experimenting with his own sexuality, he enjoyed sex with men, but never seen himself being in a relationship one. However, with Hal, after a few short hookups, they decided to try dating and see where it leads them. They were polar opposites, but in many ways, they were the same.

“Neither did I.” He replied, with a small smirk on his face. “Lina apparently did.” After which, he paused for a second as he turned towards Rosalind and looked at her in the eyes “Y’know, I didn’t expect to be met with as much support as I did. I thought you wouldn’t approve it.

The cowboy’s words stunned Rosalind. She was never a hateful person and quite open minded to accept anything new into her life, but instead of nagging him about it, she tried to play it as a joke. “You kidding? I always wanted a gay best friend.”

The cowboy laughed nervously. He didn’t like it when people presented his sexuality as the main part of his personality, because he considered himself to be a lot more than who he dated. He felt awkward and didn’t know how to properly respond to the statement. “Do you have anything more for tonight? I was thinkin’ of headin’ home.”

“Nah, you’re free to leave.” She smiled at him “Do you know how to tell him about Gat now?”

“I will just wake him and tell him.” His voice was emotionless. “Maybe we can cry it out together ‘til the mornin’.”

As the two of them started heading back inside, Rose spoke to the cowboy “I hope you’ll be alright. I need a right-hand man.”

"'course, Rosie. I'll always have your back." Responded the lieutenant. Jonathan might not be a natural born leader, but he was as loyal as they get; like a dog blindly following his owner.

As the two walked back inside, they interrupted the conversation between the two lieutenants, in the middle of which Donnie stood, still not sure how to feel about the whole situation.

"What's going on?" The ginger asked, but her question was interrupted by the elevator door suddenly opening.

"Hey guys, missed anything important?" Macy's voice spoke as she exited the elevator. She sounded as confident as she usually is, but she was hit with a bit of doubt when everyone stared at her, not looking too happy.

"Well, Rosie is our temporary Boss now." Jonathan told Macy. The two were good friends, so he didn't have troubles speaking with her.

"As for the second news... You might want to sit down..." Emmanuel interrupted Jonathan, as the crew was getting ready to inform the girl of the Saints' loss.


	3. Oiled up and Ready to Go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Few days after the meeting, Rosalind decides to visit one of her lieutenants.

Few days have passed since the meeting. The news of Gat’s passing has been known by the public for a while now. Rosalind still didn’t manage to completely get over his death, however she is closer to accepting the fact that her friend is gone.

The public has started to pity the Saints for the loss of one of their leaders; and Rose managed to feel that pity whenever she walked out in public. As soon as they would notice the purple in her clothing, she was met with the looks of sorrow and pain from the others. It bothered the girl, she wasn’t used to this and it made her extremely uncomfortable to be seen just as someone who has their friend die recently by the people.

Rose parked her bike outside a mechanic workshop located in the Chinatown, the one belonging to Donnie, got off it, placed her helmet on the handle, and started heading inside. She didn’t bother securing the bike, as there were three Saints outside the garage providing security to Donnie.

“Hello, Boss.” One of the lower rank thugs greeted Rosalind, to which she waved back at him with a slight smile on her face.

“Hey, Donnie.” Rosalind said once she entered the workshop and spotted the mechanic under some red car. The man was startled, and used the skate he was laying on to roll back up from under the car.

“Oh, good morning, Boss.” Donnie said, still a bit unsure how to refer to the newly appointed Boss. Ever since few days ago that he found out he got canonized into the Saints almost against his will, he started slowly accepting his place within the gang. He felt safe around the Saints roaming around his garage, and to know he was under the protection of the gang’s best fighters certainly made him feel at ease. The mechanic wiped his dirty hands of the towel that way laying on top of the car, a beat up drag racer, and offered to shake Rosalind’s hands, to which she accepted with no problem.

“I am here for an oil change on my bike.” She said, and pointed towards the outside “I parked right in front, I don’t know if I came at a bad time.”

“Nah, it’ll be done in a minute.” The mechanic pointed at the chair near the workbench. “You can sit down there and wait if you want. Engine has to cool down.”

“Oh, alright.”

Donnie went back to working on the Zircon, he opened up the hood of the car and started tinkering with the battery "You know, Boss called me..." Donnie paused for a second "The regular Boss. She told me to ship out her car to Steelport." A year ago, Boss bought a brand-new Blade that was customized for her own needs. Automatic, automatic air condition, four doors, and most importantly, rocking the Saints colors scheme.

"See? I told you you're one of us." She smiled at the mechanic

Donnie chuckled back, as he finished the work on the battery. "I was actually thinking... What if I get a Saints mural over there?" The mechanic pointed at an empty wall inside his workshop. There used to once stand a brotherhood mural, but after the gang has fallen to crumbles, Donnie felt it might be appropriate to get rid of it. Ever since then, it'd been an empty wall, as Donnie was uninspired to think of anything creative.

“Honestly, man, that would be perfect.” Rosalind pulled out her phone to check the messages. “Are you going to use Boss’ designs or get your own?”

“I don’t know. I want something unique, but I don’t want to disrespect the Boss. She still kinda scares me.”

Rosalind chuckled at the mechanic comment “Don’t worry, she’s calm now.” She replied “If it bothers you that much, design it on paper and ask her for permissions. She’d appreciate it.”

“Alright, thanks.” Donnie felt a lot more comfortable around Rose than he did around the Boss. She was a lot friendlier and a warmer person, and unlike Boss, she hasn’t inflicted years of trauma upon him.

The mechanic smiled, was this finally the safety and protection he looked for in the Brotherhood? He was never a strong man; he was the type that relied more on his intellect rather than strength. So, he chose to be a car mechanic due to his passion for cars since he was a little boy. It helped a lot befriending the people from local racing scene, including the late Joseph Price, whom he became the best friends with.

The ginger put her phone away, “Want me to wheel it in?”

“Well, if you really want. I’ll still have to wait for the engine to cool down before I change.” Donnie explained, but Rose was hesitant.

“I’ll wheel it in anyway.” The ginger said as she headed towards the exit to get her bike from the outside.

There stood a tall man, wearing an unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt, with a zebra pattern on. His whole hairy chest was exposed, but it didn’t seem like he cared. The man crouched down to inspect the bike from a better angle, when the ginger interrupted him.

“Hey, watchu doing there, buddy?” She said, without sounding too hostile towards the tall figure.

“I was just checking out this beast.” The man said, with a grin on his face, as he got up. “I LOVE these stickers. Is this your bike?” Brunette man said as he pointed at the pink stars decal on her gas tank.

“Thank you! It is mine.” She said, grinning at the tall man’s compliment. Most of the guys don’t tend to notice the pink stars on the gas tank and assume she couldn’t be able to drive such a bike. Her overall femininity and innocent like expression of herself made them overlook at a possibility that something so sweet could be interested into a hobby that’s as manly as motorcycling is. That's why she dressed like she did; always wearing her own leather jacket with a custom Third Street Saints logo printed on the back of it. Maybe that's what gave it away to the man that she's the owner. The ginger stretched her hand towards the tall man and introduced herself, with her ever present smile on her face. “I’m Rosalind. You can call me Rose.”

The men grinned like an idiot, he pointed at the ginger’s décolleté, precisely at the tattoo of an flower on her left breast. “Just like the tattoo!" But before Rosalind could respond to it with anything, the brunette took her hand and gladly accepted a handshake from her. " Nice to meetcha! I'm Arron. My sister has a bike like this too, though I'm more of a truck guy myself."

“No way!” She replied in excitement after hearing this. “My friend is a truck freak too!” Her ever present smile was shining on her face. “You should meet him, I think you two would get along great.”

"I would love to! I like meeting new friends." Arron responded, "Is he here?"

"No, he isn't... But he gets his truck fixed here too."

"Oh, I'm not here because of my car." The tall man scratched his neck "I live close, I was just walking around the area when I saw this cool bike here." He looked once again at the motorcycle. "I would love to meet your friend though."

"Well, if you ever wanna come and hang out with us, you can come by Purgatory, I work there. Just ask for me."

"Oh, you work with the Saints?!" Arron got excited when he heard about it. "You know, I used to be in a gang too!"

"You must have been good at it, considering you're alive!" Rose pointed out with a cheerful smile.

The brunette chuckled "I got arrested. I spend six years in the box."

"Damn, and you're just admitting like that?" Rose found it quite strange. Just like the Boss, she shared the same sentiment about getting arrested, and that it’s a shameful thing. Getting arrested as a gangbanger meant you slipped; that you were weak. It meant you weren't unstoppable as the streets expected you to be. It showed that you were reckless and dumb enough to get caught.

"Yeah, not the best time of my life..." Arron shrugged

Rosalind walked towards her bike and grabbed it by the handles, gently removing the break. "Hey, I gotta finish something with my mechanic. Hopefully, you drop by soon?"

"I'll see if I can. Was nice meeting you, Rose!"

"You too." Rose waved at the tall man, before she started pushing the bike inside Donnie's garage. It was a heavy bike, but thanks to its wheel, it wasn't too hard to push it. Once inside the garage, she saw Donnie in the same position she left him in, next to the beat down Zircon.

"Took you a while." He responded, moving away from the car and point towards the empty space in his garage "Wheel it there."

“Yeah, sorry. Had a chat with some guy outside.”

As the ginger was pushing her bike, Donnie went up to his storage room and looked for the oil can. It was on a shelf above a workbench. He kept all of his things sorted nicely, and with oil it was easy, since all of his customers used one of the four different brands he recommends. The mechanic looked up into the shelves, and picked a bottle. Synthetic oil, Hammer brand. It was one of the best oils for the engines used by Dobson’s vehicles, and considering Rosalind’s Estrada is manufactured by them, it applied in here to. He picked a metal tray from under his workbench, alongside an oil filter for the bike, and headed back towards Rose and her bike.

“How long has it been off?” Donnie asked her as he was slowly approaching.

“I don’t know.” The newly appointed leader pulled out her phone to check the time on it “About fifteenish minutes?”

Donnie nodded; the engine is supposed to have cooled down by now enough for an oil change. The mechanic got down and placed the metal tray right under the engine. With his gloves still on, he unscrewed the drain plug and set it aside, to which the oil finally started pouring out of the engine. His perception was right, and the oil wasn’t hot. Proceeding forward, Donnie used the strap wrench to remove the oil filter, and dropped it into the tray, after which the mechanic unboxed the new filter, applied a little oil on the ceiling of it so it would spin on smoothly. Donnie screwed a filter into its slot by hand, but not overtightening it, so it doesn’t get damaged. With the new filter installed, he took the drain plug and screwed it back on, before finally getting to the main part of it all, pouring the new oil inside the engine.

“That should be enough…” He said, as he finished pouring it all in and closed it, after which he instinctively started the engine to idle about. “Yeah, I think it’s all done.”

“Nice!” Rosalind pulled out some money she left aside in her right pocket to pay for Donnie’s services, but the man refused it.

“Nah, it’s on the house.” He picked up a rag that stood on top of the Zircon and wiped his hands with it. “Gang discount for the Boss.”

“No, no, I insist.” It wasn’t a lot of money to begin with, so she didn’t much need a discount. Especially considering she gets to see a lot from the Saints grand so has no need to accept discounts at all. “You’ll need the money for the mural.” She teased the man.

“Alright, if you insist.” He took the money from her hand, and placed it inside his pocket. Despite his mannerism, the new filter and oil had a price, so he could only truly give away his hands for free without any loss “But count on a discount from now on. “

Right at this moment, a purple Alaskan drove inside the garage and parked on the 2nd spot next to the car the mechanic was working on, and out of it peaked a bright white cowboy hat, as it was 10am, and time for Jonathan’s truck to get serviced. He came out of the car and greeted the other two, with a charming smile on his face “Howdy.” The cowboy tipped his hat.

“Jon!” Rosalind was surprised to see him up this early. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, I was just having my car checked up and fixed ‘ere.”

“You’re right in time too.” Donnie approached the cowboy, and gave him a fist bump.

“Ya kno’ I’m never late.” Jonathan smirked as he pulled out the small bag of weed from his pocket and handed it to Donnie. “Your favorite.”

As a drug runner for the Saints, and one in charge nonetheless, Jonathan would usually use his resources to pay his friends. On surface, it sounds quite cheap to pay friends in weed, but in all reality, it was more of a tip to an already existing payment; a simple sign of his generosity and friendliness.

“Oh, and don’t forget the keys.” Jonathan said, handing him his truck’s keys.

“Need me to give you a ride back home?” Rosalind noticed her friend would be leaving the car at the mechanic for God knows how long, so she offered to take him on her bike to his home, which was located all the way to the other side of Stilwater.

“Sure thing, Rosie. Lemme just grab some things first.”

Donnie interrupted him as he was headed towards the car, but Jonathan didn’t stop, so the two walked to it together. “So, judging by the things you told me over the phone, I’ll need her here for at least 3 days.” Jonathan wasn’t the most careful driver, he suspected that the thing wrong with his truck this time was that the brakes went out, which Donnie suspected would require the entire system to be replaced. With the bigger vehicles, especially Millah brands, it requires a bit more time to fix than it would on a sedan or a hatchback “Need a replacement car?”

“Nah, I’ll just ask for carpool.” Jonathan opened the passenger door of his Alaskan and opened his glove compartment. He took a small box out of it, small enough to fit into his palm. “I’ll just take this if it takes too long, a’ight?”

“Take anything you need, dude.” Donnie really liked Jonathan. He knew him the best out of all the Saints and the cowboy was always kind and friendly to him, so Donnie returned the favor.

“Thank ya, pardner.” Jonathan tipped his hat again at the mechanic, as he walked towards Rose’s bike, but not before putting the box inside his pocket. “If ya need anythin’, you know my number.”

The cowboy got on back on her motorcycle, and as the two waved the mechanic goodbye, and slowly left his garage, he looked once more at the direction of the blank wall, and smiled at it, as his head went through many different designs. He wondered, was this the family he always wanted?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter introduced a new character, but the main focus of it is Donnie's place within the Saints. It was a bit hard to find inspiration for, I kept losing it a lot. Thank you to my dear friend Singa for proof reading it for me.


	4. Roses are Falling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The days have been quiet in Stilwater with nothing unusual happening. Jonathan spends a peaceful evening at home.

Downtown Stilwater was quite loud in the evening, and that didn’t change on this one. That didn't stop Jonathan from walking his two beautiful dogs, and enjoy the evening with them. The dogs were very docile and listened to Jonathan’s every command. One of them was a quite big golden retriever on one leash, who was the older one of the two, and was named Joe Cola; after Hallen and his favorite soda brand. Joe was originally adopted by Hal when Boss raided the pyramid and found a dog inside. She assumed that the dog was held in a test subject and set it free. After that, Hallen asked the Boss personally if he could adopt that dog from her, and since then the two have been inseparable. He is a bit larger than a normal golden retriever, but that didn’t bother the skater.

The other one was a bit more defensive in nature, but still a good girl that loved her belly rubs. She was a pit bull called Saints Flow, or Flo for short. She was rescued from an abusive household at 16 months old, where she was mistreated and never taught how it felt to be loved. She kept herself distant from other people, and would usually become hostile towards humans. Jonathan, who would occasionally drop by the dog shelter to play with the puppies, one day decided to adopt her and help rehabilitate her into a normal and healthy dog life, after the pit bull grew quite fond of him over his visits. Ever since she moved in with them, Flow has been doing great and shortly became one of the most lovable pups on the block.

Usually, Jonathan would spend his evening walking them alongside his boyfriend, Hal, but seeing as he's been depressed for the past week since Johnny died, Jonathan has been left on the lone walking duty.

That didn't stop the cowboy from taking care of his man, as he always would bring a small treat for him whenever he came home. As the walk was nearing its completion, Jonathan approached the entrance door to their apartment building, when a woman came out of the door. Flo growled at the woman, to which she was startled, but thankfully, the dog was both leashed and had a muzzle on her face. Saints Flow was trained to be a guard dog, so in order to keep any incidents from happening while on their walks, the two guys have decided to keep the muzzle on just in case, even though they trusted Flo not to bite anyone that doesn’t attack them first. “Easy, baby.” Jonathan said, as he was pulling her away from the dark-haired woman. “Don’t worry, she doesn’t bite.” He addressed to the woman and tipped his white cowboy hat, to which she made some snarky comment and continued walking her way. She was a bit rude, known around the building as very unfriendly and unwelcoming, so it didn’t surprise Jonathan that she would say something mean towards the dog. Especially since Jonathan himself has gotten a few very mean comments directed towards him.

Jonathan went up to the elevator with the two dogs still leached by his side, and took it to the 4th floor. Soon enough, he reached his apartment. The unit wasn’t in the best shape it could be. Jonathan tried keeping it clean, but that was always one of Hal’s strongest suits. While Jonathan struggled to see the difference between the laundry bleach and floor cleaning agents, Hal found great satisfaction in mopping the dirty bathroom tiles and seeing the clean and shiny trail he leaves behind.

As the three of the entered the apartment, Joe rushed to go greet his other owner, while Saints Flow, ever the guard dog, picked up her favorite toy that she left by the door, it was a squeaky plushie in a shape of a carrot, and went into her basket to keep a guard on the door. Joe Cola climbed on top of the couch Hal was laying on and snuggled between his owner and the back of the couch as Hal gave him a small scratch on the head.

It's been a week since Gat passed away and Hallen was still mourning him. The skater didn't feel sad as much as he felt empty and broken. He was on his phone, looking at the picture he had of him and Gat. It was from a party held in the old Purgatory back when the gang war was still happening. Both of them held a bottle of beer in their hands, with Gat's other arm being around Hal's shoulder. Hallen's face was however silly; his left eye was half shut, and his mouth formed a weird smile. He wasn't quite photogenic. He remembers Shaundi wanted to take a picture of Gat, but Gat wrapped his hand around him and pulled him into the picture. Johnny always had a soft spot for Hallen.

“Hey, honey. How are you doin’?” Jonathan said as he walked into the living room.

“Hey, bro.” The skater replied “I was looking at some pictures of Mr. Gat. I miss him.” Hal was extremely polite for a gangster. He would refer to almost every lieutenant by either Miss or Mister. It sort of became a running joke within the gang. “I regret not taking more pictures with him.” Hal didn’t have a lot of pictures with people. He was shy about asking people to take pictures with him and felt extremely awkward when doing so.

“I got ya some ice cream on the walk.” The cowboy handed his boyfriend a small Freckle Bitch’s bag. “Your favorite. Mint choco chip.”

The skater looked him in the eyes, and smiled slightly. Small gestures like this reminded that he was loved, despite his insecurities. “Thanks, bro.” He took the bag from Jonathan’s hand and opened to see a sealed container and a spoon. He took it out, but Jonathan soon jumped in to help him gently gasp the contained with his prosthetic wrist.

Hallen lost his right hand a few years ago, when an enemy gangster cut it off by accident. He was on a negotiation deal with his best friend, when the guy attacked her and tried to cut off her head with a machete. Hal instinctively pushed her out of the way, which resulted in him losing his hand. Thankfully, to Ultor Corporation, and more importantly Boss’ connections to Ultor, he was able to get a cutting-edge hand prosthetic which pretty much worked like a bionic hand. As a right-handed person, he still to this day suffered and was adapting to using it, he had a huge problem with squishing stuff too hard with it and accidentally destroying them. Jonathan tried his best to be supportive, and even helps his boyfriend gently grasp the cup

Jonathan and Hallen met around the time Boss had officially formed the Saints. Jonathan was shortly after joining given a task of helping to establish a Saints drug market in Stilwater due to his high interest in drugs back then. This started first with him doing some small side tasks for the Boss and Shaundi to help take out and weaken the Samedi’s hold in the drug monopoly in the city. He helped Luz, the former member of the Carnales, push her drugs, which she obtained from the Colombian cartel. This eventually made Luz one of the Saints’ own dealer, and got the cartel to supply the Saints with drugs. On first sight, it gave Luz less power over her products, but she gladly accepted the offer from the Saints, since she could always use extra security. After all, dealing with other thugs and cops trying to take her down was difficult for her.

Around this time was when he met Hal. He was fairly new to the gang and joined alongside his college friends. All of them ended up being assigned to the drug runners’ team, so they got a chance to work a lot with Jonathan. Hal and Jonathan however, made a special connection. Jonathan was always good at making friends and communicating with people, and considering how introverted the Boss used to be before joining the Saints, he had a very easy time forming bonds with more shy people. They would smoke weed, and talk about life. Mostly Jonathan would do the talking, while Hal listened and made a comment on two in relation to what Jonathan said.

This all changed one faithful night at a party. Jonathan got high on Amphetamine, and being heart broken from a breakup of a night before, decided to make out with the skater. He suspected Hallen was into him at the time, but it is unsure if the skater was really into him, or if the narcissism got the better of him. Regardless, hookup, turned into another hookup, to another, until a week later when they decided to give dating a shot.

Jonathan wasn’t at first set on the idea of dating a man. He had sex with plenty of them, but he only found them attractive in that sense. Romantically, he was a lot more interested in women, which he dated plenty of beforehand. However, Hal loved an idea of being in a relationship and having someone care for him, regardless of the person’s gender, though, he did have a slight preference towards men.

“What are you watching?” The cowboy asked as he noticed the TV screen in front of the couch playing the commercials, and sat down to the right of his boyfriend on the couch. Joe Cola at this moment moved from being behind the two men, to being to the left of Hal, resting his beautiful head on his lap.

"I was watching re-runs of this show I used to watch on Channel 12."

"The kids network?"

"Yeah." Hal had a thing where whenever he felt down, he'd spend his afternoon watching cartoons on TV. It made him go back to a time when he was a kid, and the things were so much simpler. This is how Jonathan could tell how bad he was feeling today.

"Mind if I join ya? Had a hard day." Jonathan said has he snuggled against Hal, and rubbed his fingers across Hal's freshly shaved scalp. Jonathan used to love playing with Hal's hair because it was always so clean and soft. This was all until few weeks ago, when the skater decided to completely shave his head to see how he would look bald. He ended up regretting it, especially after being met with a lot of teasing comments regarding his new appearance. The cowboy tried to be as much supportive about his man's decision, but he couldn't lie and say he didn't miss that beautiful mane. “I ran into Wynne again.”

“Ms. Baudelaire? Our neighbor?” Hal asked.

“Yeah… she was bein’ rude to Saints Flow for no reason again.”

“I don’t know why she’s so mean to everyone, she yelled at me last week when I was holding the door open for Mrs. Baxter.” Mrs. Baxter was an older lady, in her 80s, that lived on the second floor. Hal liked helping her because she would give him the sweet hard candy when he does. “She said I was letting all the cold into the building.”

“She’s insane. I’m sick of her and her lazy eye.” Jonathan stated as he was referencing his past struggles with self-confidence.

“Bro, that’s not nice to say.” Hallen interrupted “She might be mean to us, but we should be better.”

The cowboy sighed, before apologizing to his boyfriend for his potty mouth.

As the commercials ended shortly after, the show was back on TV. It was a cartoon that aired on national TV when both of them were at a really young age. It was about a dog that goes on an adventure. The show was pretty cheesy, but it was really colorful and the characters in it were funny, and most importantly, innocent. Whenever Hal would feel down, or depressed, he would always spend some time watching cartoons on TV. It reminded him of a time, back when he was just some kid growing up in Manchester, and how life was a lot easier back then. He didn’t have a severe social anxiety disorder. Eventually, this disorder led to Hal becoming addicted to weed, which was actually how Jonathan and him first bonded. 

As the anxious man ate his ice cream and watched the show, he thought about his current state of life and decided to speak “I’m sorry I am not here for you right now, bro.”

“What?” The cowboy was rolling a joint before getting confused by his boyfriend’s question. He needed a few hits of it for later “You’re right here.”

“I’m not fair towards you, bro.” The skater said, “You’ve been so nice to me by bringing me snacks and cuddling with me, and I am too sad to even ask you how you feel.”

"Oh darling," Jonathan said as he moved his hand onto Hallen's cheek, and looked deeply into his sad, puppy like eyes "I know you're more emotional and take this stuff on deeper. I knew I'd be takin' care of you when we moved in together."

“Still.” Hal replied “You are sad, too. You deserve someone to bring you ice cream and keep you warm at night as well.”

“It ain’t all about that, honey. You have no idea how much joy I get from taking care of you.” The cowboy leaned in and gave his boyfriend a small kiss on the lips. “I’ll be at your side no matter how long it takes you to recover.”

Hallen at this point, started tearing up a bit. “Thank you, bro.” He wiped the tear “I know it’s hard for you too, I really want to help you stay clean.”

“You kiddin’? I haven’t thought about drugs once.” Jonathan lied. He was a recovering drug addict. Ever since his mother died in his early teen years, Jonathan has been coping with his depression by doing every drug known to man. Weed, speed, meth, cocaine, crack, LSD, PCP… You name it, and he most likely tried it. However, his addiction eventually lead to him becoming more mentally unstable, and eventually made him this extremely chaotic person who would smash someone’s head with a cinderblock for calling him a mean name. He only got clean thanks to the support of other Saints, and that especially includes Hal, who has been taking care of Jonathan ever since he decided to go clean. The cowboy had plenty of moments since then where he wanted to go back to his old habits; to relapse. Every time he felt said or depressed, and simply wanted his pain to go away, he thought about that good old feeling of high, but somehow, he managed to resist it. He gave up alcohol and almost all the drugs in this new lifestyle. All but weed. The two boys still occasionally smoke weed together since it helps a lot with their anxieties.

“Bro, I’m so proud of you.” Hal tried to give a small smile but ended up looking a bit awkward.

Jonathan felt seen for a moment. He struggled a lot with his own insecurities and anxieties that he constantly forgot that there were people out there caring for him. It meant a lot to him that Hal would say something like that.

In fact, maybe it was the right time to make Hal happy after a few months of planning, looks like he won’t be needing the weed after all.

“Hey darling, could you pass me the lighter behind you?”

“Sure, bro.” The skater turned around to reach for the lighter on the coffee table next to him. He reached out with his left hand, the real one, and turned around to hand it to Jonathan.

That’s when he saw Jonathan on his knee in front of him, holding a small black box “Honey, will you make me the happiest man alive, and marry me?”

“Bro…” Hal said as he dropped the lighter and put down his ice cream as he was slowly tearing up. He placed both of his hands against his face as he was starting to slowly sob, and out of happiness, nonetheless. The cowboy placed down his ring box as he got down on both knees and took Hallen’s left hand.

“I’m serious, darling.” He placed his other hand onto Hal’s face, and wiped away his tear. “We’ve been together for three years and saw many losses. You almost died when you lost your arm, I almost died in a drug trip, and Johnny died when we least expected.” He saw the emotion in Hal’s face get slightly sadder as he mentioned Gat’s name. “Point being, neither of us knows when our time will be up, I don’t want to leave behind any regrets. Let’s bind our souls.” Jonathan pulled out the ring and held it between his fingers. “So, whaddya say? Pardners for life?”

Hal's eyes started pouring tears like an overflowing well, as he tried to process what was going on. The emptiness that was in his heart a moment ago was now filled with joy. He couldn’t get his emotions under control “Yes.” He said, wiping his tears away. “I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

Jonathan took his lover’s left hand and gently put the ring on his ring finger. The ring was made from pure silver, with an amethyst gemstone on top of it. It was engraved with a flame like shapes on the base. Jonathan got that with intention; it looked like the pattern one of the shirts Hal had in the closet. A great chunk of Hal’s clothing consisted of different looking patterned and Hawaiian shirts.

“But how are we going to get married if it’s illegal, bro?” Hal asked

Jonathan got up his knees and sat on his fiancé’s lap. He looked at him straight into the eyes and kissed his lips once more. “Let’s not think of the details.” He said, trying to enjoy this happy moment with his boyfriend. “I guess we’ll get hitched as soon as it’s legal?”

“Okay, bro.”

“Should we drink wine to celebrate?” Jonathan asked wrapping his arms around Hallen’s shoulders.

“Bro, you know you can’t drink alcohol.” Hallen replied, he understood that Jonathan wanted to celebrate, but he couldn't risk his sobriety for it. “Want to finish this ice cream with me instead?”

“Okay, honey.” Jonathan got up from his lap, and walked towards the kitchen to grab another spoon. He came back and sat next to Hal and the two men started sharing their ice cream and enjoying the evening; now as two fiancés.

“Do you maybe want to go out to the park with me tomorrow and work out, bro?” Hal offered to Jonathan. The cowboy had a hard time working by himself, he struggled without motivation and required Hal’s support to do anything. Hal offering Jonathan to come didn’t only mean assistance and hanging out, it meant that Hal might actually be ready to start rehabilitating back into life after mourning Gat for seven straight days.

“Sure thing, darling.” He smiled. “I love you, ya know that?”

To which, Hal glanced at his new ring and replied “I love you too, bro.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The character of Hal belongs to MikiBandy (punkishrogue on tumblr)


	5. Welcome to Stilwater

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phillipe Loren is dead, its time for the Saints to return to Stilwater and re-established the authority within the city they previously held.

October and November weren’t remarkably busy months for Stilwater. Most of the traffic coming in and out of the city are people on their business trip, while tourism there was pretty much nonexistent at this time. However, this year seemed to be different for the Michigan based metropolis, as the death of Johnny Gat, a pop culture celebrity known for his extensive involvement in the Saints brand, took the nation by the storm. He was a hero to many people, and an inspiration to half the nation. Everyone who could afford to visit Stilwater did so, with an intention to pay their respects to the fallen Saint. They left flowers, pictures, and lit candles in front of the Saint of All Saints statue outside the Purgatory, hoping to honor his memory with them. But flowers won't bring Johnny back, the Saints were set on getting revenge on the Syndicate for their friend's death, and after the Boss dropped a seismic damper on Phillipe Loren's head, crushing him under its massive weight, everyone within the gang was satisfied with the news of his death. The entire gang was now celebrating the death of the Morningstar's leader in their private nightclub. It wasn’t a particularly loud party, as it felt more like a get together between friends.

Rose was at  Stilwater  Airport, waiting for the Boss' and the crew's arrival from Steelport. The industrial city offered the Saints plenty of opportunities to grow their business and illegal activities, especially after taking over the 250 stories tall skyscraper, which served as the Syndicate's base of operations. There were plenty of plans inside the head of the Saints leading members, but none of those were of any priority. They were all still grieving the loss of their close friend, so their intentions were to come back to Stilwater and give the Saints’ second-in-command a proper funeral. As the ginger arrived at the airport with a few other grunts, each one of them with a luxurious vehicle ready to drop off the lieutenants to their base of operations in Stilwater, Purgatory Nightclub, the private jet lieutenants flew with, coated in a purple metallic paint with fleurs on the flaps, was on a slow approach to Wardill Airport. They were to arrive at the airport in approximately 13 minutes, with Rose having nothing to do in the meantime but wait.

* * *

“Thanks.” The blue haired Boss replied to the stewardess on the private plane, as the woman dressed in an all-purple outfit finished filling the Boss’ glass with the finest wine; a French made grape goodness from the 1960s.

The stewardess nodded, with a company mandated smile on her face, and walked across the empty jet to return the bottle of wine to its place. The plane wasn’t as crowded compared to the number of Saints present in Steelport. It only had 4 Saints, the stewardess, and two pilots present; the rest of the Saints that came to Steelport stayed back to ensure their new properties didn't get overthrown.

Lina was scrolling through the front page of the Stilwater Gazette on her phone, as she was slowly reading the headlines, trying to catch up with all the things she missed in Stilwater. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary for the city, the nightlife has been booming in the last week and there haven’t been many incidents except for some petty robberies, but that’s nothing unusual for a metropolis where half of the citizens live in poverty. Still, something else in the paper caught The Boss’ attention. The Hughes Memorial Bridge was finally wrapping up its construction, as hinted by the top story on the website, and it was set to formally be opened tomorrow at 6 p.m.

The Boss took her glass of wine, and took a sip of it, before being utterly disgusted by the bitter taste of it. “Yuck.” She frowned after swallowing it, as she hoped that the taste of it wouldn’t stick in her mouth for too long. “Pierce, this is the last time I’m letting you pick the drinks.”

"What?!" Pierce said with a panicked tone in his voice. He took off the eye covers from his face, as the Boss startled him and immediately woke him up from a half sleeping state. The man could never sleep on a plane, but he still liked to try, especially on a peaceful flight like this one. After all, it wasn't often that a flight with Saints was a quiet one. "What's wrong now, man?"

"The wine, it's disgusting." Lina replied. She didn't drink a lot of wine herself and was quite picky with it. She didn’t like the usual grape bitter taste of it, and most of the time it would taste to her as if something in it was spoiled and rotten. The blue haired woman had a sweet tooth, and preferred to consume food of sweeter flavors, and the same applied to alcoholic beverages, making any drink that is as bitter as the wine she was having at the moment quite an unpleasant drinking experience. "I told you I don't want any of this cheap shit on the flight."

"Cheap??" The lieutenant was offended by the Boss' wording, as he tried some of it before and thought it was quite a worthy investment. "It was four thousand dollars."

"Man, they scammed you." Lina replied, she thought about cracking a joke about grapes being spoiled, but decided to keep it serious for the time being. "Couldn't you grab something from Loren's personal stash?"

The Saints recently took over the Morningstar's base of operation, the Syndicate Tower. The gang’s original plan was to blow it up and leave a permanent mark in Steelport’s skyline, sending a message to anyone in the future who planned to mess with the Saints. However, the plan changed with further consultation, and considering all of their Morningstar property deeds being in one place, which is the Saints’ hands, The Boss could claim the ownership of the entire skyscraper, just like they did with the penthouse loft they used for partying. So, she did just that, and everything in that building was now owned by the Saints, including all of the personal belongings inside the building. It was one of the things all of the Saints that were left behind were protecting, and making sure it remains the property of the Third Street Saints. "Man, Loren didn't have anything good there."

"At least you could've blamed Loren for ruining my taste buds." Lina smirked, as she was getting ready to tease the man "Now it’s all on your shoulders."

"Man, fuck you." Pierce replied, as he placed the sleeping mask back over his eyes and sank back right into the chair. "Yo, you heard about the bridge thing?" He asked, after a short pause.

The Boss grunted. "Ugh, don't get me started on it." She was quite vocal about her dislike towards the bridge's new name.  _ Hughes Memorial _ , named after a guy who tried to kill her many years ago, which ended up with putting her into a coma that took years of therapy before being able to trust getting on another boat again. Now that she’s left being a freak for the rest of her life because of the accident, while he is getting all the sympathy in the world for not being strong enough to survive his encounter with The Boss. In fact, Lina has been so vocal about her disapproval regarding the praise the late Alderman Hughes was getting, that it was covered by the tabloids on several occasions. Hopefully, these views won’t ever come back to haunt her at some point. “I wanna see if we can get Ultor to forcefully change the name for us. Maybe ‘The Saints Bridge’ would be cool, don’t ya think?”

“Shit, that’d be cool.” Pierce replied with a smirk on his face. He could imagine all the things they could do if Ultor let the Saints oversee the designing of the bridge. He could in fact see it right now, with the purple lights shining all over the bridge, with Saint of All Saints on both ends of it. The Pierce Washington Bridge. He chuckled while daydreaming about it, trying to think who’s the perfect person to bother to make this happen, but after a few short moments, he woke up from his daydream. “Anyway, I meant we don’t gotta detour anymore.”

“Oh.” Purgatory was located in the middle of the newly renovated Shivington, and as such, the best way to go from the HQ to Downtown was through the one bridge connecting the two areas with each other. Sadly, a year ago, the old bridge was closed for the reconstructions, which eventually became the Hughes Memorial Bridge. Tomorrow after the grand opening would be the first time in a year that the Saints could reach Downtown directly from the base, without having to detour through Saint’s Row to get there. “Yeah, can’t wait. I am sick of driving around.”

At this moment Shaundi interrupted the Boss “Johnny would’ve loved that.” She said quietly and sighed. Johnny hated driving around the city more than anyone else in the gang. She still recalled him complaining every time he had to drive, and how she’d call him out for being a bitch about it. The wound of Gat’s death was still fresh on the sex icon’s heart. She could stop blaming herself for his death. Part of her felt guilty Johnny had to protect her instead of letting her stay and fight alongside him, but she didn’t. She believed his words and convinced herself that she’s too weak to fight alongside him, despite being false. She had many sleepless nights, thinking about what could’ve gone differently if she tried more to convince Johnny. At least seeing Loren’s squished body on the Syndicate’s parking lot made the lieutenant feel better. Enough to sleep comfortably for at least one night. She felt like Johnny was looking down on her from the sky, and was proud at the strength she displayed in an attempt to avenge him. Hopefully, she could honor his memory better now, especially as her TV show was nearing its conclusion.

“Hmmm, what if…” Boss thought out loud, which got the attention of both of her lieutenants, as well as the giant Russian man they rescued from the Syndicate Tower, who was reading a big book in the back of the cabin. “What if we let Gat go over that bridge once?” She suggested, this felt to her like a genius idea “After all, he was the happiest out of us all that the works on it were ending.”

“What do you mean, Boss?” Shaundi replied, she didn’t quite understand what Boss was trying to say.

“Well, his body arrives tomorrow at the airport,” Lina said, they had to transport his body through the official sources, which only meant they had to wait a day for the body to arrive legally “we pick the coffin up at the import, and drive them to the reception across that bridge.”

“Yeah… That sounds quite nice actually.” Shaundi replied “But, wait, why couldn’t we transport him with our choppers? Why are we bothered with legality all of the sudden?”

“Honestly, Johnny is my friend… He deserves a proper funeral.” The Boss sighed as she looked outside the small window at the clouds surrounding the plane. The loss of her best friend started catching up with the tall woman once again, as she barely held back her tears. One minute he was right next to her, and the next, he was dead. She should’ve helped him fight off those goons, but she focused on protecting Shaundi. It was a misjudgment on her behalf, as Shaundi was quite capable of taking care for herself. “I don’t want to smuggle his body and risk our boys fucking something up.” The Boss paused “God knows I’d rip them in half if they did.”

Shaundi nodded, she completely understood Boss’ reasons and agreed to some degree. Gat did deserve a funeral as proper as they can be. He wasn’t just another member to them; Gat was a part of their misfit family.

The light indicating it is time to fasten their seat belts has turned on, as the Captain used the speaker to inform the Saints of their approach to Stilwater’s airport, as the four Saints and the flight attendants fastened the belts. The descent wasn’t really slow, considering private jets are quite a lot faster than regular commercial planes, so the Saints didn’t spend a lot of time glued to their chairs before the plane was on the ground, and it stopped right outside the Saints hanger on the airport, where Rosalind had been awaiting the Saints with rest of the crew.

As the plane’s door opened up, the lieutenants on the plane got up, picked up their luggage from inside the cabin, and headed towards the plane’s exit door. The first one to come out of the jet was none other than Pierce, the face of the Saints carried two big pieces of luggage with him, as well as a carry-on satchel. Pierce was a traveler, he enjoyed going around the world, and as such, he treated Steelport as another retreating, spending thousands of dollars during their absence from Stilwater. He walked up to the ginger, who approached closer to the plane when the doors opened, and wrapped his arms around her torso, giving her a long hug.

“Hey, girl. Missed ya in Steelport.”

“Missed you too.” Rose gladly accepted the hug, but after a few moments, she tapped his back twice, signaling that it’s time to end their embrace. The face of Saints moved behind her, where one of the grunts took care of his luggage by placing it in the trunk of Pierce’s ride home.

Shortly after Pierce, Shaundi came out of the private jet, with sunglasses and a frown on her face. She didn’t pack as much as Pierce, growing up in a big family taught her how to bring the least amount of stuff on her trip, with bringing back only a single, normal sized suitcase back to Stilwater. As the woman got off the stairs, she pulled down her sunglasses a bit to take a look at the assembly of Saints waiting for their arrival. 

“Pierce, did you really have to make a whole damn parade for us?” Shaundi said as she arrived in front of him and Rosalind, throwing the ginger a small wave after berating Pierce. “Good to see you doing well.” Shaundi greeted the Boss’ Replacement.

“Girl, you know I don’t got nothing to do with this.” The Face of the Saints defended himself. Rosalind blushed when she heard Shaundi criticize Pierce for the parade, as it was her idea to greet the Saints back in Stilwater with a proper crew. Luckily for her, she didn’t bring together all the lieutenants for the so-called parade, many of them insisted on coming.

Finally, the last two passengers came out of the plane: The Boss herself and the newest recruit of the gang, Oleg Kirlov. Rose heard from the Boss about the size of the new recruit, but she didn’t expect him to be taller than the Boss, who stood at 6’7 with her heels on. She didn’t know how to react, as the two tall figures approached the group.

“Sup, guys?” Boss said as she got in front of the group, referring only to Rose. With her, she had only a small carry-on bag with her. Lina was never much of a hoarder, so most of the stuff she bought in Steelport for herself, she left in the penthouse they took over from the Morningstar, after all, she needed stuff there when she went back to check on Saints’ presence and control of the city. What used to belong to the Morningstar, now all belonged to the Saints.

“Welcome back, cuz.” The ginger went up to the Boss and gave her a big hug, to which the Boss returned.

“Hope everything was in order while we were gone?” Lina asked, she wanted to know how Rosalind handled the pressure of being a leader.

“Yup, no problems at all.” The substitute Boss smiled with her teeth out. “We can talk more about it in Purgatory.”

“Sounds good to me.” Lina pulled out the purple cat eye sunglasses from her bag and put them over her eyes. The color of it didn’t match the dark slate blue dress she was wearing, which worked wonders for bringing out her face. “Shall we get going?”

“Yeah, the drivers are behind me.” Rosalind walked them closer to the armada of purple Infuegos; the Saints’ customized vehicles were to arrive tomorrow alongside Gat’s body in a cargo ship. Until then, the three of them were stuck using regular company issued cars.

The Boss took a step forward to the first car in the line, and walked up to the driver with an extended hand. “Give me the keys, I’ll be driving.”

“Uhh…” The driver got confused. This was the first time he was driving for the Saints leaders and didn’t know how to respond.

“Carpool with your buddy, I’ll drive myself there.”

The driver, in full confusion, handed over the keys. He didn’t want to go against Boss’ word, for he had seen many times before what happens to those that did. Just before the Boss could enter the car, she was stopped by Shaundi.

“Wait, Boss, we got a problem.” She grabbed the leader’s upper arm.

“What’s up?” She turned around to face the brunette, leaning onto the car.

“Oleg can’t fit into any of the cars…”

“What?” She turned towards Rosalind. “I thought I said we’re bringing home a big guy and to organize a ride for him.”

“I didn’t know he was this big.” The ginger smiled nervously, she expected him to be around 6’2, maybe a bit taller, but Oleg ended up being quite taller than the Boss, even.

“Rose, no offense, but do you think we’d specify someone’s big if the Boss is 7’1?” Shaundi was frustrated. She was annoyed by Rosalind's constant incompetence and her inability to think things through. She never bothered with anything, and always went in with whatever pocket change she had and hoped for the best. Shaundi thought she didn’t have what it takes to be a leader, and this thing with Oleg was one of many proofs of that. She organized a whole parade, even bringing in two extra cars they didn’t need, but haven’t bothered to even check if their newest member could fit in any of those 5 Infuegos.

“Sorry, I guess.”

“Goddamn it, Rosie.” Lina said, but not too aggressive. She thought, maybe it was even her own fault for not specifying it. “What will we do now?”

The four of them thought for a second. They could just send Oleg for a walk, but that would’ve been a rude thing to do, as he was their guest. Alternatively, they could steal one of the trucks that frequently visit the airport, but before anyone could suggest stupid, Shaundi spoke up.

“Why don’t you three head to the penthouse and we’ll meet you there?” Shaundi suggested, she thought of something. “I got an idea; I can handle it myself.” Truth be told, she didn’t want to be with Rosalind as much. Her optimism annoyed her, and she didn’t want to bother with the ginger’s dumb excuses after messing this up. 

“You sure?” Boss asked the brunette. She trusted Shaundi with her life, but knew very well how badly she was affected by Johnny’s passing. “I can stay with you if you need.”

“I’ll be fine. Besides, Oleg is with me.”

“Alright then, let’s head out.” Lina got into the car, and rolled down her window. “And Oleg, sorry for this confusion.”

“I don’t mind it; people aren’t as used to seeing men as tall as me.” Oleg replied politely. He was never able to enjoy a luxurious ride in a limo the Saints were so comfortable with using.

Pierce and Rosalind entered the 2 nd car in the line, both sitting in the backseat of it, as the convoy headed towards the Purgatory, with Boss on the head of the line.

As soon as the cars were out of the two Saints’ sight, Shaundi pulled out her phone and started scrolling through her contacts. “Let me just call a friend, he’ll help us out.”

“No need, I will walk there.” Oleg argued, in an attempt to be a gentleman, he didn’t want to bother Shaundi with organizing a ride for him. Men his size usually required special vehicles, back during his time in the KGB, he’d drive in an APC mostly, which he assumed Saints wouldn’t have in their arsenal. But Shaundi was determined to get this right.

“You’ll just get lost in the city. Trust me, I got this.” She selected a contact, and pressed her phone against her ear, as the sound coming from it suggested the connection had been established and that the phone was ringing.

In the car, Pierce and Rosalind enjoyed the warm leather seats in the back, as they started casually chatting and catching up with each other. Rosalind placed her hand over Pierce’s thigh. “Missed you.” She said quietly, but not whispering, as she attempted to sound more seductive. Luckily, the driver couldn’t hear her anyway, as the divider between the front and back seat was soundproof.

Pierce smiled at the ginger’s advances, so he grabbed her by the chin and pecked her lips. “Missed you too, girl.”

Rose barely resisted ripping off his clothes, and doing it on the backseat of the car, but before any of the two could act on their desire and lust, she slowly pushed Pierce away from her, giving him a sign it’s not a good time for it right now. 

The Face of the Saints backed away from her, as he resorted to just resting his hand on her thigh as well. “We gotta stop with this charade already, babe.”

“They’re not ready for it yet.” The ginger replied. The pair has been secretly seeing each other since the start of the year, more precisely since they had a hookup on the Saints’ New Years party. The two had agreed that the relationship shall stay secret, to avoid all the media exposure they’d get, as well as to not put everyone else in an uncomfortable position. Mostly keeping their relationship between the closed doors, where they were safe from everyone’s opinion on it. Both of them were afraid of the disapproval and backlash they’d get from seeing each other, but not enough to break them apart. Instead, they decided to wait until they get more comfortable to share it with the public.

“How about after Johnny’s funeral? They need some good news too.” Pierce suggested. He got tired of hiding his love for the ginger from everyone else. He considered the Saints his family, and saw their relationship at the point where he would take her to meet his parents.

“I dunno.” Rose though for a second, and she was hesitant to agree to it. She was also tired of hiding it and only being able to show affection when no one was looking, but part of her was still scared of any backlash she’d get. Rosalind grew up with a controlling mother, and she never thought like she could trust her family about any relationships she was having. The poor girl always opted to keep it secret, knowing how negative her mother would react to hearing about it. She only ever slipped once about a relationship, and to this day she is traumatized by what followed. Pierce knew everything about this, which is why he supported her decision to keep it between them. Even if he knew Saints were nothing like her mother, and the Boss would be really happy to know her cousin is in a happy and healthy relationship with another man. “Let’s talk about it after the funeral, okay?”

“Okay, I gotchu. But as long as we actually talk about it.” Pierce replied, giving her a small kiss on the forehead, before backing away.

“So… How was Steelport?” 

“Eh, I’ve seen better cities. The air was pretty dirty, hard to breathe, and it stank like piss” the man complained about the city “but they treated me like a star there, which I am. And they welcomed me among the big dogs with open arms.” He bragged. Pierce loved his fair share of attention.

“Glad to hear you had fun.” Rose smiled at her boyfriend. “Met anyone interesting?”

“Oh yeah, I met that famous porn star, Miles Long.” Pierce pulled out his phone, and showed her the picture he took with another light skinned black man, who rocked purple dreadlocks. “Turns out, he was a fan of the Saints.”

“I can see that.” She chuckled, commenting on the man’s purple dreadlocks.

“Yeah.” The Face of the Saints put his phone away. “Anyway, we had a little deal, and he asked me to collect some blow-up dolls around the town for him for his collection. It was pretty cool, dude paid well too.”

“Were there really that many around the city? What, just laying around?”

“Yeah, when Boss and Shaundi hijacked that plane on arrival, they accidentally caused buncha cargo from it to drop down, including drugs and blow-up dolls. Some Morningstar operation apparently?” The celebrity didn’t know the full story of their great escape from Morningstar’s captivity, but he did hear some parts of it.

“They stole a plane?!” Rosalind was shocked, she is yet to hear any details of their trip.

“Well, not really, just trashed and jumped out of. You know, the usual.” Pierce said, but he didn’t want to go into too many details. “She’ll probably tell you when we get there.” 

“Well then, can’t wait to hear more.” She cuddled up against Pierce. “Anything else happened to you?”

* * *

Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, among the top floors of the Purgatory, sat 3 Saints at the bar, hanging out, and waiting for the Boss' arrival. 

“Hey, I’m just sharing my opinion. Am I not allowed to have them?” Emmanuel got defensive about the subject of their discussion “I just think that our little Boss Jr. isn’t a good leader.”

“Because it’s only been a week” Marceline argued back, as he took a shot of his Bourbon. She thought he was being too hard on the girl and not giving her proper space to adjust to the new role of the leader.

“You’re barking at a wrong tree, pal.” Jonathan said with a confident smile, while playing with a straw from his orange juice. Unlike the rest of the Saints, he stayed away from alcohol as a precautionary measure not to relapse into his old habits surrounding drugs. As such, he loved drinking orange juices, the sour taste of it pleased his tongue. "When Boss makes a decision, it stays that way. Otherwise, you'll just piss her off."

"Whatever, I'm just showing some concern for the future of this gang." Emmanuel still continued to argue "I mean look, she's always absent, didn't see her once for the whole week."

"Just because she doesn't take shots with you, doesn't mean she isn't around." Macy still strongly defended Rose. Yes, she was a flawed leader, but her inexperience won't be solved overnight. As they say, trial and error.

"Yea, I know Rosie, she'll grow into this role." The cowboy backed Marceline's argument "Just accept it, you won't be the new second-in-command."

"It's not about that." The hitman tried not to yell, but he was deeply offended by the cowboy’s comment. He didn't see the spotlight; however, he was convinced he'd make a better leader than Rosalind. "But you have to admit, even you would be a better leader than her."

And for the second, Jonathan and Marceline looked each other in the eyes, and broke into the laughter. The two knew each other from the early days of the Saints, far longer than Fuego was in the gang, which is exactly why both of them found this remark ridiculous.

Jonathan tabbed Macy's shoulder, who was on the other side of the bar "Can you even imagine it?" He asked her, barely saying the full sentence without breaking into a laughter.

"Man, what'd you do?" She wiped the tear from her eye "Turn the penthouse into a dog sanctuary or something?"

"Okay, okay! I get it!" Manny stopped them, but he didn't change his view. He truly believed Jonathan would be a better leader than her. After all, the entire drug market of Stilwater, as well as some areas around, laid on his shoulders.

Marceline filled up Fuego's glass with bourbon, as well as her own. This one was her favorite brand, aged at 40 years. "Man, I haven't laughed like this in years." She said, before taking the shot of her drink.

"Oh boy, do me a favor pardner, don't put crazy ideas like this in my head." He sipped his drink from the straw. There were many fucked up things he did within the Saints, and terrible calls he made. Majority of people on the round table knew he would never be able to handle the pressure of being a leader either, without expecting him to do something extremely crazy.

Suddenly, a tall man, stocky man, with a clean shaved head and a messy buttoned up shirt approach the bar "Hey everyone."

"Good to see you made it, Vince." Fuego remarked. Vincent was a pretty notorious man within the gang. He wasn't a lieutenant or in charge of anything important, but he was a familiar face to everyone. He believed in the ideology of the Saints, and committed to every aspect of the gang, being on the good word of every lieutenant. He was built like a brickhouse, and could take any job with no problem, but he's especially good with operating on special machinery.

"You told me to meet you here?" Vincent received a call from Fuego this morning about a job that needed to be carried out.

"Yup." The hitman passed him the folder that stood on the bar, which was a dossier on the target that needed to be taken out. "All the info is here; you know the job."

"Are you for real?" Macy was furious, she had a strict no-meetings policy in any of the two nightclubs located in the Purgatory. "You literally have your own office, and you bring your shit here?"

"Yeah, I just gotta pass him the folder."

"I swear to God, you really make me want to shoot you sometimes" She was frustrated with Fuego's attitude. Out of all of the gang, he was the worst to deal with. "I'm going to double your tab if you keep doing this."

"Fine, fine. I'm sorry I broke your rule. Better now?" Fuego apologized, not sounding very sincere.

While the two of them argued, Vincent was trying to read the basic info on the target. "I'll take care of it." He interrupted, before starting to head out. "Jon, Macy, it was nice running into the two of you." He said before taking off.

"I like Vincent, he's always so nice." Jonathan commented, he didn't care about the pair's argument, and instead wanted to compliment a member. "I wish more Saints are reliable like he is."

"Yeah, he's nice." Macy replied, he did manage to jump in and fill for the warehouse worker that got shot, and she was thankful to him for that. "Guess we know who to replace Manny here when I kill him."

The hitman grunted "Its Fuego. Please." He sounded rather strict

"You’ll earn your nickname back when you start respecting my rules."

As all of sudden, the phone on the counter had started vibrating, as its screen lit up. Jonathan took the phone, and through its cracked screen saw it was the call from Shaundi. The two of them had a very close and friendly relationship, both spending most of their youth being stoned on the best weed in town, as well as working together on controlling the Stilwater drug market.

“I think they landed.” The cowboy said "Howdy." He picked up the phone, with a smile on his face. He felt as if it was important if she'd call him this early.

“Hey, Jon, is your truck available right now? I need help with something.” The brunette lieutenant was direct. Ever since she became a reality show host, Shaundi has been very direct about her phone calls. 

“Yup, it’s with me right now. Whaddya need?”

"I need help transporting something heavy from the airport, and Rose didn't plan ahead." She sighed, in Shaundi’s experience Rosalind wasn’t the most reliable when it came to organizing stuff within the gang. "Again..."

"Of course, Sha, I'll be there in a minute." Jonathan smiled; the cowboy was always happy to help his friends. As a former drug addict, he always liked the feeling that came whenever someone needed his help. He felt validated, useful, and that there was something worth staying sober for.

"Great. I'll be at our hangar." The brunette replied, hanging up her phone after the goodbye. Oleg was concerned if the cowboy's truck would be enough to support his massive weight, to which Shaundi assured him that it would. She witnessed Jonathan use that truck for stuff that were far heavier than Oleg.

Jonathan hung up his phone and placed it in the pocket of his denim jeans, as he got up from the stool. "Shaundi said they need my help at the airport. I'll be right back." 

“She needs you? Specifically?” Fuego asked, turning towards the cowboy in the spinning barstool “You know I can fly you there in a heli?”

Manny was a trained pilot, similar to how Pierce was. Boss wasn’t very good at flying a helicopter, she tried to learn how to do it, but never managed to grasp it and fully pass her flying exam. Instead, she sponsored others to do it, and one of the things Saints specialized in was the aerial control of the city. They had a hangar full of helicopters always ready to be used by one of the Saints with a piloting license. From Tornadoes, Storks, Horizons, machine gun mounted Oppressors, and many more in their fleet, Saints could be seen flying them across Stilwater’s skies and transporting themselves and their cargo, as well as providing combat support from the air. It was the gang’s specialization.

“Nah, pardner, I think they need ma truck.” Jonathan’s accent struggled with ending words with a hard letter, so he would constantly soften some of them.

“Oh, well then…” He turned back towards the bar, and took a sip of his cold one, as he watched Macy getting ready to ask a question too.

“When are they arriving here?” Macy stopped him before he could leave. The manager was the most responsible one in the group, always collecting the most information possible from the rest of the gang. Some within the gang would even call her an information broker, a fixer that sets meetings between lower ranking members and the lieutenants of the gang. Specifically, the A-Team.

“I dunno. Soon?” Jonathan didn’t really ask about that. “We’ll continue our chat some other time.”

The cowboy tipped his hat at the two Saints, which Fuego ignored, while Marceline gave him a wave back. As he turned around 180 degrees and took a step forward without looking, bumped into his fiancée.

“Where are you going, bro?” Hal looked down at Jonathan, staring with his sad, green eyes. The tall man just came out of the bathroom, after taking a break from the group earlier to relief himself.

“Sha needed my help at the airport, so I’m gonna go help.” He said right before warping his hands around Hal’s jawline and giving him a kiss as a goodbye.

“Do you need my help?” The tall man asked, shyly playing with his fingers. He liked going along with Jonathan on adventures and being around him, especially in times as hard as these.

“Not really, I’ll be back shortly, okay?”

“Okay.” Hal replied, closing his eyes as his insecurities made him feel stupid for even asking.

“Stay safe. I’ll be back soon.” Jonathan bolted towards the elevator, as Hal went to the bar and took Jonathan’s seat. Macy took Jonathan’s glass, and placed an empty one for Hal, pouring a bottle of an ice-cold Joe Cola from the refrigerator.

“Thank you, Miss Macy.” Hallen said. His favorite soda was Joe Cola, and everyone within the gang knew that. 

Emmanuel chuckled at Hal as he was sipping his cola. “When are you going to man up and get a real drink?”

“Stop it. He’s the most responsible one here.” The girl behind the counter berated the hitman.

The skater looked down shyly, he didn’t enjoy when people shamed him for not fulfilling the standards of toxic masculinity for being a man. He didn’t drink alcohol; didn’t like the way it burnt his mouth. The skater did have quite an awful sweet tooth. Back when he first immigrated to the United States, he found great comfort in drinking sodas, drinking at least several pints of it a day ever since. Some would say he has a caffeine addiction, which can be seen whenever he has a headache from drinking too much soda, but in the end, he was an adult enjoying his favorite drink, just like some other people enjoy coffee or tea. 

For the next 20 or so minutes, nothing happened in the nightclub. Few Saints came to the club for drinks, but they mostly stuck to their own group in the back of the club, but the three of them remained up front in the bar, usually consisting with Marceline and Emmanuel having a chat about random topics as their conversation flew, with Hal drinking his soda next to them, every so often interrupting to ask a question about the topic they’re talking about. All until Emmanuel switched the topic to sports, which prompted Hal to get more involved within the conversation, being one of his bigger passions in life. Though, to the topic’s disappointment, they weren’t into the same sports as passionately as the other one was. With Fuego preferring football, and Hal only keeping up with basketball. Most of the private club was empty, as the Saints were in mourning of Johnny's death and didn't have plans on partying in their private club area, however there was a group gathering to welcome the Boss back in Stilwater.

Finally, the phone with a purple tiger print case, which belonged to Macy, vibrated, notifying her of the crew’s arrival in front of the Purgatory. 

“They’re here.” She announced, upon reading the text message from one of the Saints keeping watch outside.

“Let’s head out then.” Fuego replied, as he pulled out his wallet and got ready to pay today’s bar tab for everyone. Growing up, Fuego was taught always to be a gentleman, and as such, he always paid attention to small details in his gestures, like dressing nicely, holding the door for the ladies, and paying the bill. His mannerism is what greatly helped the hitman rank up in Saints, and so rather so quickly, nonetheless.

The two men got up from their seats, as the manager walked around the bar. All three of them made their way to the elevator, pushing the button for the ground floor.

As the elevator started counting down from 85, Macy had to make sure Fuego heard something. “Hey, don’t bring up to the Boss what we talked about earlier.” 

“You mean about  _ güerita _ ?” Fuego asked, referring to Rosalind. It was a word used in Mexican slang that was used for someone with a pale skin tone, in this case, a pale woman. He thought it’s a fitting name, considering Rosalind was the palest person in the B-Team when she doesn’t have her make-up on. 

“Yeah, she’ll learn. We’ll teach her. Just don’t be a snitch.” Macy defended Rosalind’s incompetence as a leader, she genuinely believed the girl could grow into the position of the Boss eventually, and there was no need for Emmanuel to bring her down in front of their leader.

“I’ll have to if it comes out naturally.” Manny ignorantly replied, while Hal felt extremely uncomfortable and awkward in the elevator with the two of them. He was too scared to even say anything, over how much Fuego's attitude intimidated him.

“It won’t come naturally.” Macy responded, her voice sounding a bit stricter now. She knew him well enough to sense when he’s bullshitting her. But only after a few seconds, her voice returned to normal “Please, don’t do it for me.”

Emmanuel sighed, before finally giving in. “Alright, fine. I won’t do it. But it’s on you if something bad happens next time the Boss is out.”

The manager was ready to take full responsibility, as long as Fuego was willing to back off from her and let the girl breathe while trying to adjust herself into this new position. With Saints’ new celebrity status, it’s never known when Rosalind will be forced to fill in the Boss’ role for a bit longer. Until now, usually either the Boss or Johnny stayed in Stilwater to oversee the gang while others were off around the US to do their celebrity pop culture tasks, but now with Johnny gone, it was unknown how the Boss planned to run her gang when he’s out of town filming for the show for a few days.

The elevator doors finally opened after the rest of the ride went quiet. They got out, just to be stopped on their way to the Boss by a crowd of people gathered around the leaders. Luckily, no paparazzi or fans, just Saints stuck in lower ranks willing to do anything to get some attention from the Boss. From those with prematurely tattooed fleurs and gang signs on their bodies, to wannabe celebrities, all tried to get their fair share of attention from the Boss. Such was the life of the so-called A-Team of the Saints.

Finally, in the sea of grunts, the Boss noticed three familiar faces. "Hey, guys. Good to see you." She made her way towards them, pushing the Saints aside, as Pierce and Rosalind followed closely behind.

"Welcome back, Boss." The Manager was first to speak to her. She always thought it was proper to do so, as she was the one in charge of the Purgatory, where the leader arrived.

"Good to see everything's under control, Macy." Boss made a comment. At this moment, Fuego saw a perfect window to file his complaints against the ginger replacement, but he didn’t out of pure respect towards Macy.

"As always." She smiled, her bright blue contacts shining a spark in her eyes. "I thought we were getting a new member today?"

"We are," Lina replied "he stayed behind at the airport, Shaundi is taking care of his transportation."

But before Marceline could respond anything to that, their conversation was interrupted by Rose "Where did Jon go?"

Macy got really peeved when Rosalind did that, considering how often she interrupts people like this. It almost made her want to badmouth her to the Boss herself. "He said Shaundi needed him for something."

It all clicked in Lina's mind as she realized what Shaundi was planning. "Yeah, it makes sense..." She said to herself, before continuing discussion "Glad she called him. Shaundi's in a really bad place right now," Lina sighed, she wished she was better at comforting Shaundi as she was with others. But the brunette was built differently, she considered her emotions a weakness and as such closed them from the rest of the Saints "hopefully reconnecting with a friend will help her. J knows this shit better than I do."

"So, the new guy, is he really that big of a deal?" Manny asked, he heard many things about him, but being a skeptic, was in doubt about it.

"Oh yeah, the biggest." The Boss replied, "But we'll talk more about it in the penthouse, if y'all want."

“Hello, Miss Boss.” The third, recently shaved Saint said, shyly playing with his fingers as he smiled at the Boss.

“Miss Boss?” Lina petted the top of his head. Despite being one of the tallest guys in the gang, the Boss was still taller than him “I thought we agreed you don’t gotta call me Boss.”

“I’m sorry, Miss Lina, I forgot.” There were few people within the gang who were allowed to refer to the Boss by her real name, and, along with the rest of the lieutenants, Hal was one of them. “I am glad you came back this soon, did you travel well?” 

"I did, come give your boss a hug." Lina spread open her arms as she gladly accepted the green-eyed man in her arms. The two of them had a special relationship, he was like a son she never had. Always so polite and socially awkward, Lina couldn't let the poor kid roam around by himself and get hurt, so she took him under her wing, just like many other lost and confused kids that ended up in the Saints. She wanted to be their parental support; the one she never had. Hal, however, had a special place among all those Saints, as he tried his best to give back the support she had given him with many, many small gestures. That, and he dated the Boss' best friend.

The Boss let go of the tall Saint, and pulled out the keys of the Infuego "Wanna help me park the car?" She asked Hal "I can let you drive it."

Hal’s eyes widened as he got anxious about driving a car. He wasn’t a very good driver, still without a license, but the man loved everything about them. “I don’t know, Miss Lina.” He looked down, avoiding eye contact “I don’t want to crash your car and make you mad.”

“Nah, it’s not my car anyway. I’ll help you.” The Boss wrapped her hand around the tall man’s shoulder, and started dragging him towards “You guys should head up to my penthouse, and we’ll join you shortly.”

Rose and Pierce approached Emmanuel and Marceline while the Boss and Hal walked towards the car.

“So, we’re headed up?” Pierce asked the two of them, both hands in his pockets.

“After you.” Emmanuel made way for Pierce. Despite what everyone else was saying about Pierce, he had great respect towards the Face of the Saints and his tactician way of thinking. Possibly respecting the man more than anyone else in the gang did.

* * *

Just around the same time as the Boss arrival to the Purgatory, the cowboy himself arrived at the airport in his purple Alaskan. He spotted Shaundi standing on the side with a tall man. ‘ _ Holy shit _ ’ he thought ‘ _ That’s one big man… _ ’ In all honesty, when he heard that the guy was big, he didn't expect him to be built like a tank. Oleg was 6’9, had a wide shoulder, and his arms and legs were the size of tree trunks. He was unlike any other man in the entire city, let alone in the Saints. Needless to say, someone with his build would be a welcome addition to the gang.

The redneck got out of his truck. “Howdy.” He yelled at Shaundi, before slamming the door shut. He walked towards the two Saints and gave Shaundi a hug "Good to see ya, Sha. Missed ya."

"Hey, Jon." She gladly accepted the hug. After all, she needed some form of comfort after Gat's death. When the hug was over, she took an opportunity to introduce the two men to each other "Anyway, Jon, I'd like you to meet Oleg. Oleg, Jonathan."

The cowboy tipped his hat to the tall man “Howdy, pleasure to meet you.” He said, right before offering his hand to the man. He never thought of doing that much, he considered the hat tip to be enough, but he started working on improving his manners recently.

“Likewise.” Oleg said as he went to shake the cowboy’s hand. 

Jonathan’s mind was filled with absurd thoughts as the tall man was going in for the handshake, he could only imagine Oleg crushing his tiny wrist with his big, meaty hands. Luckily, that was just a worst-case scenario caused by his paranoia, which was a side effect from consuming so many drugs years ago, and their handshake went as smoothly as it could. “Aren’t you built like a snake on stilts?” He commented on Oleg size. “Don’t mean no disrespect, but your momma must’ve been feeding you nicely…” 

“My mother raised me into a great and healthy man I am today, I owe her everything.” Oleg responded, he was proud of his family and loved his mother dearly.

“I see.” Jonathan didn’t know how to respond to the brute, so he simply turned towards Shaundi and started questioning her about the task he was needed for. “So, what’s the idea, Sha? I assume he couldn’t fit the fancy cars?”

“Yeah. So, I had an idea. Morningstar had a few of these big guys themselves, clones if you will-“   
“Clones? Like in the movies?” Jonathan interrupted her in the middle of the explanation.

“Oh, yeah. It was crazy. They had this whole floor full of these eggs, and he was hooked up to some kind of machine getting his brain copied or some shit. I don’t know.” The reality star explained “Anyway, they’d transport them in the back of the trucks. I was thinking maybe you could do the same?” 

“You mean, in the bed of the truck?” Jonathan loved his truck more than he loved himself, he took using the right terminology for it very seriously.

“Yeah, that. Whatever.” The brunette didn’t bother with it too much. “You think we could do that with your truck?”

“Oh boy, not sure about the weight.” Alaskan was a reliable truck, made for heavy lifting with an engine strong enough to pull up to 12,700 pounds. Suspension was set for heavy loads, as Jonathan would frequently use his truck to transport heavy cargo for the gang, including drugs, which was his main responsibility. As such, he always had it ready for heavy cargo. “How much you weigh, big guy?”

“190 kilos.” The man said, but before he could say anything else, Shaundi interrupted him.

“I already did the math, that’s around 420 pounds.” 

“Nice,” Jonathan barely resisted the urge to laugh at the number, which was quite ironic considering how dependent on the drugs he was only a few years back. The suspension and tire pressure could support Oleg’s weight in the bed of it, just last week he transported 600 pounds with it. The only problem was Oleg’s gravitational pull, but luckily Jonathan wasn’t smart enough to think of that. “let’s get you on the truck then.”

“Thank God, knew I could count on you.” Shaundi commented, before the three of them headed closer to the purple Alaskan and behind it. The cowboy pulled down his truck’s tailgate for the man to enter through it, while Shaundi went up front and took the shotgun. She pulled out her phone, and started checking for any new messages or phone calls.

“Here ya go, be careful not to flip it.” Jonathan gestured to him, as Oleg climbed on it, and moved the truck portside with his weight. The Russian man sat down closer to the front of the bed, keeping his farthest he could be from the sides. The redhead closed the tailgate, and headed towards the driver’s seat. He put the key in the ignition, turned the car on, and started driving toward the headquarters.

After a few short turns, Jonathan decided to talk to Shaundi. He heard through Rose how badly she was dealing with Johnny's death. "How was Steelport?"

She was replying to a text message, so she kept her eyes and fingers on the phone "Ugh, horrible. Once a dump, always a dump."

He chuckled at her comment, he has never been in Steelport himself, but heard a thing or two about it, mostly that it sucked. “I think we got few spare Criminals laying around the Purg.”

“The SUV truck?” She asked. The Saints had a lot of cars in their garage, just waiting to be used by someone for anything.

“Yeah, we can use it for our big friend instead of my truck. I just don’t know if the suspension can take him.” Jonathan mentioned once again, drastically exaggerating Oleg’s weight.

“Yeah, we could use that for Oleg, I guess. I’ll just ask Donnie to check it out when we get there.” She paused for a second. “Donnie’s at the meetup, right?” The Boss organized a small meetup between the lieutenants of the gang, as a small celebration for taking over Steelport before starting preparation for Johnny’s funeral.

"Nope, he said he'll come by later." The cowboy replied, keeping his eyes on the road "Wanna hear somethin' funny?"

“Not really in the mood for jokes, but what’s up?”

“Donnie didn’t even know he was in the gang.” Jonathan formed a grin on his face as he was saying this. “Rosie just told him on her meeting. Boy had no clue about it.”

"What the fuck- Wait why did he think we fixed our cars at his place?" Shaundi was genuinely baffled by this. She didn't know how to properly respond.

"He just thought we were bein' empathic and all that crap," he chuckled "it's all just too crazy."

"Man, should I call him and make sure he actually comes later?" Shaundi asked him, as she started going through her contacts looking for his number.

"Text him, yeah." Jonathan replied "I hope he comes; he needs some campfire bonding for this to work."

As the brunette was typing out the text, she had to question Jonathan's word choice "Wait, doesn't campfire bonding just mean sex?"

"Nah, just hanging out." He took an illegal turn left, carefully not to flip over the whole Alaskan with Oleg’s added weight “Like hanging out and drinking beers at a campfire all night.”

“Okay then.” She said awkwardly, as she was finishing up her text. Moments later, she got a word back from Donnie confirming he’ll be present at the get together “He’s on the way.” 

“Let’s hope he’s better at drivin’ than he is at being a member.” Jonathan chuckled at his own joke, that wasn’t funny at all.

Shaundi however, didn’t respond to it; she didn’t even register it. The female lieutenant released a sad sigh, as she stared out of the Alaskan’s open window. The cowboy's chuckle didn't last long after he noticed this, and his goofy smile dropped off his face, as he got concerned for his friend’s wellbeing "What about you? How are you holding out?"

“Johnny’s dead, and it’s my fault.” Shaundi blamed herself for the second-in-command’s death. If it weren’t for her, and the other’s need to protect her for being weaker than the rest of the lieutenants, they would’ve fought together, and Johnny would’ve made it out alive. She was the Boss’ burden, who got assigned on babysitting duty instead of helping her best friend.

Jonathan looked away from the road for a second towards Shaundi, his puppy eyes wide open. Even if he would ever so often claim he doesn’t have empathy for others, he could almost feel the celebrity’s pain, as he knew exactly how it felt being responsible for someone else’s death, even though one of the two were responsible for anyone’s death as they all knew the risks and made their own choices. “I know how you feel.” The redhead said, turning his head back towards the road ahead. “Carlos’ dead cause me. If it weren’t for me, he wouldn’t’ve been that soft, he’d be able to fight back those flannel mouth chuckleheads and wouldn’t’ve gotten the best of him.”

"Yeah, but this is different." Shaundi turned towards Jonathan as she was explaining. "He didn't die because he had to protect you, he died because the Brotherhood overwhelmed him."

“They did because I kept him away from getting better.” Jonathan felt like crying whenever telling this part about him, Carlos was one of his best friends, and few people that were actually nice to him. “I kept giving him excuses, to not work out, to not practice, to not to his job. Why do you think it took him so long to get any intel?” It wasn’t that Carlos didn’t want to do his job, it was that Jonathan kept him occupied with other, dumber things to do and kept him away from the task.

“I knew he helped you with drugs a lot, but I don’t know how you got in the way of his Brotherhood work.” But Shaundi knew better, she knew what a bad influence on others Jonathan could be “What did you do, exactly?”

“Well, other than kept him busy with the drugs, I always told him not to listen to Lily,” Lily was Jonathan’s nickname for the Boss which he had for her ever since they were two kids hanging out in their hometown. “and to hang out with me. I kept him from the range, from the gym, from collecting the information on the car show knuckleheads and told him whenever she gave him any difficulties that I told him to tell her I told him to do that.” The Boss was always soft with Jonathan, he could get away with doing anything without any consequences, and he made sure to give this immunity to the people he liked. “If I didn’t play like that, he’d’ve been alive right now.”

"I- I didn't know..." The brunette was at the loss of words; she didn't know how to reply to the new information. She knew how close Jonathan was with Carlos and that they would hang out together a lot, but she never suspected the cowboy would have anything to do with his death, least of all that he felt guilty and responsible for it. "Why didn't you tell me any of this earlier?"

“I dunno.” The redneck shrugged “I didn’t want anyone to judge me for it. I would’ve rather suffered alone.” They stopped at the red light, after which Jonathan faced the reality star “That’s why I know what you’re goin’ through. Because I went through it 2 years ago. So, if you really need to vent about it, I’ll listen. Give me a call.”

She looked at the window once again, the speech didn’t make her feel better about Johnny being gone, but at least she knows that she wasn’t struggling alone with the survivor’s guilt anymore. “Thank you, Jon.” She looked back at him again “You really know what to say.” Shaundi recalled Boss trying to comfort her a few nights ago, but failed miserably. The blue haired woman had a hard time with making emotional connections and being good with words. After all, she wasn't comfortable with the sympathy she got from the rest of the gang, and appreciated Jonathan's empathy a lot more.

“Anytime. We are buddies after all.” He scooted a bit closer to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, giving her a friendly embrace, while waiting for the light to turn green. “Hey, wanna grab something to eat? I’m sure Lily and others could wait for us to finish.”

“I’m on a diet.”

He let go of her. “C’mon, you killed that crime lord yesterday, you deserve a reward.” The light turned green, as the cowboy shifted in the first gear and started driving. “Just one cheat day, maybe it’ll help ya open up a bit.”

She sighed, and released a small chuckled at Jonathan’s attempt to convince her. This was the first time the female lieutenant smiled since that night on the Morningstar’s plane, and it felt good. “Fine then, but just for you.” 

“Hey, big guy. You hungry?” Jonathan yelled out of his window to Oleg.

“Thank you, Jonathan, but I ate before we left.” Oleg said back, as he held onto the truck’s fenders.

“Bullcrap. I know a great burger joint in the city you gotta try right. It’s to knock you off your feet.” It’s not easy to impress a big guy when it came to food, but Jonathan surely didn’t give up on trying to. After all, you can never oversell a good Freckle Bitch’s meal. “It’s my treat, for the beginning of our friendship.”

“I prefer a home cooked meal more, but if you say it's this good, I will have to try it.” The Russian man was modest, and well mannered, he didn’t want to bother his new leaders, and rescuers, with pointless requests. You learn how to make the best out of the most uncomfortable situation when you serve the Russian military, but he didn’t want to offend the cowboy by denying his offer. They say southerners don’t take no too well.

“Prefect.” The redhead smiled, as he turned on his left blinker and got ready to steer towards the Freckle Bitch’s restaurant. It’s time the Russian tried some real food.


	6. Wither on the Vine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Saints attempt to organize Johnny's funeral goes terribly wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one took a bit longer to write. It was supposed to be a filler chapter between this and the next one, but it took A LOT longer to make than I expected.

Rosalind watched the busy streets of Shivington from the penthouse window as the noon was slowly setting in. She looked at the traffic around the Purgatory, as her view was slowly getting focused on the skyscraper itself. It’s been a few hours since the beautiful purple lights of the Saints’ very own tower got turned off for the night, and had stopped blessing the sight from the apartment Rose spent the night in.

She was sitting on an armchair next to the window, completely nude with only a blanket covering her body. She thought a lot about the last few days she had spent being the leader of the Saints, recollecting her thoughts about what all happened. In reality, nothing truly happened, but now that Johnny’s gone, she might get a chance to be a leader more than before, and the idea that it might be a lot harder next time and that everything could go wrong didn’t fail to make her anxious.

Suddenly, a figure of a man approached her from the back, and slowly wrapped his arms around the ginger’s torso, after which he gently pressed his lips on her neck and gave it a small kiss. “You’re up early.” Pierce stated, as he decided to rest his head on Rosie’s shoulder “How is my little petal doing this morning?”

“I’m just thinking about the last few days.” Pierce and Rose had a very honest relationship with one another, rarely hiding stuff from each other. “About being a leader and all.”

“Oh?” His curiosity peaked “How come? Thought everything was smooth.”

“Well, yeah, it was. But nothing really happened.” Rosalind used her hand to scratch the back of Pierce’s neck “I’m just worried now that Johnny’s gone, I will be a leader more often.” She sighed “I don’t think I can fill his shoes, babe.”

“Please,” Pierce tried to comfort her “you already ran the Saints once, you’ll handle yourself good.”

“And if I don’t?”

“You worry too much, babe.” He gave her another kiss “C’mon, let’s get breakfast.” Pierce got up and offered Rosalind a hand getting up, which she gladly accepted. The bed sheets she covered herself with fell back onto the couch, revealing her nude figure to the celebrity, who only had a pair of briefs on him.

“Mind letting me get dressed?” She joked, as she let go of his hand.

“No problem. I’ll make us some muesli while you’re at it.” The man left the bedroom and headed towards the kitchen.

Rosalind looked around Pierce’s bedroom for her crop top shirt and sports bra, while still thinking about everything that happened last night. When the couple got to Pierce’s penthouse from their get together with the rest of the lieutenants, they had a little talk and have come to a decision to come out to everyone next week, seven days after Johnny’s funeral. Today, it should be all about Johnny and the joy and impact he left in the lives of all the Saints, they didn’t want to take that away from him, as well as everyone else who was still mourning. The ginger picked up her sports bra from the floor, and put it on. Before even bothering looking for her shirt, she came out of the bedroom, and went into the kitchen to meet with her boyfriend.

* * *

Several hours have passed since the couple’s breakfast, as the evening started to settle in Stilwater. Johnny’s body finally arrived at the airport, and has been temporarily placed in the Saints’ very own hanger, waiting to be taken to the funeral service the Saints were organizing for him. Shaundi arrived first, and stood there, staring at the coffin in silence. She felt like she should say something to him while they were alone, but couldn't think of anything smart. The lieutenant placed her hand on the coffin, as a single tear went down her cheek.

"I'm sorry, Johnny..."

Unfortunately, before she could let her heart out, The Boss showed up stopping her from saying anything meaningful. "Good to see you're here." The Boss said to her.

Shaundi removed her hand from the coffin as she stopped herself from continuing her sentence. "Yeah. Didn't want to be late or anything." In truth, Shaundi was afraid the Boss would see her as weak and incompetent by showing up late. The lieutenant tried a lot to change her image from a few years ago when she was a laid-back stoner. She wanted to leave that part of her behind, and focus on being an independent woman that can take care of herself.

"Where's Pierce?" The blue haired woman asked.

"Said he'll be running a few minutes late" Shaundi replied, before looking up from the coffin and turned towards the Boss. "Is the service ready?"

"Rosie's setting it up with the crew." The Boss explained "We'll have a wake at his place, and then we’ll move to the graveyard for a proper funeral service."

Gat never moved like the other lieutenants did. He stayed at the house formerly owned by Aisha, which was located in the suburbs of Stilwater. Since her death, the place hasn’t been in such a good shape. It was emptier, quieter; Johnny never cared about decorating or changing much about the place himself. The second-in-command got himself a gun closet, and an at home gym, which was more than enough to please him. He didn’t have any heirs or family he was in contact with, so the Saints didn’t know what would end up happening to the house. For now, they will hold a reception there with the rest of the Saints, as a way to remember what the man meant to everyone in the gang and cherish the memories he left, as they are moving forward.

“Anyway,” Lina continued, “Donnie and Oleg will arrive here soon.”

“Oleg? Why is he coming here?”

“I dunno, figured we might need help with the coffin. They made it to be carried by four men, so I guess Oleg and I would be enough” The Boss was insanely strong, but nothing less was expected from a woman who was 7’1.

Not too long after, a purple SUV drove its way into the Hanger, with Oleg sitting in the bed of it. Donnie, who was behind the wheel, exited the vehicle.

“Sup, everyone?” He said, with a soft smile on his face.

"Hey, Donnie." The Boss fist bumped the mechanic. "How are ya holding up?"

"Pretty good." The mechanic said, after waving to Shaundi "I had fun last night."

"Glad to hear it, man." Boss focused on the SUV in the back "Uhh, I thought we'd get something classier to transport Johnny in..."

"This isn't for Johnny," Donnie casually named the deceased second-in-command, as if they were friends "this is for the new guy." After hearing that, Oleg got off the Criminal "Oleg's been helping me around the garage all morning. He has quite a touch for cars."

"In the motherland, you would learn how to use technology to survive," The big man interrupted "I learned my way around the car engines quite a lot."

"It'll be fun having him around." The mechanic patted the Russian man's lower back; the highest he could reach.

"Glad you two are getting along." Lina smiled at the two men. Both became members only recently, and it was nice to see them find friendship in each other. "But that doesn't answer my question, what are we taking Gat in?"

“I drove that here yesterday.” Donnie said, “Follow me.” He walked towards the corner of the Hanger, where stood a car covered by a microfiber material. The mechanic took one end of the cover and pulled it towards him, taking it off in a swift motion. It was a Saints very own custom made Zanin Reaper.

Saints usually didn’t get a special funeral, but Johnny wasn’t a regular Saint, he was a legend, and legends deserve to be buried in style. Which is why Donnie has spent the entire last week working on tuning up an old hearse. The Reaper got plated with armor, and painted purple, with trimming coated in gold for aesthetic purposes. The vehicle also got several body mods too, to make it look more badass, one of which is an exposed engine.

“What do you think, Boss?” The car was good enough to be taken to a war, let alone a funeral.

“It’s perfect, Donnie.” The Boss said, she couldn’t be prouder at what the mechanic did to make the car look more beautiful. She approached him, gave him a hug to show her gratitude. Donnie accepted the hug, but he didn’t feel easy at first. After all, this was the woman that beat him up once, and killed his friends twice. He was still learning how to trust the Saints after years of trauma they inflicted on him.

The mechanic replied “Thank you…”

The Boss' smile dropped as she noticed how stiff Donnie’s body was “Donnie… you alright?”

The mechanic started gently pushing the Boss away as she started to let him go. “I am still getting used to all this.” It wasn’t easy letting go of the past, but he was trying hard to. He liked how the rest of the Saints treated him and finally thought he found a safe group of people to hang around.

“Need me to hook you up with my therapist?”

Donnie smiled at her “Nah, I’m good. It’ll just take some time.”

Lina rubbed his shoulder, and she moved a step back. “Alright, wanna take my car to Purgatory?” She pulled out the keys to her Blade and handed them to Donnie.

“Sure, I’ll park it in your spot.” The man took the keys, handing her the keys to both the Zanin Reaper and the Scorpion Criminal in return. You could tell them apart by the keychain, which featured the logo of their respective manufacturers.

“See ya at the service later?”

“Yeah, I gotta get home and get ready first.” Donnie didn’t know Johnny well; they weren’t friends. But despite that, Johnny was one of his most frequent customers with the way he treated cars. The mechanic thought he should pay his respects to the Saint, despite the lacking connection the others had. He turned around and walked to the Boss’ personal vehicle, and got inside of it. “See ya guys in an hour.” He drove out of the hanger and headed his way.

"Oleg, wanna help me put this in the hearse?" Lina gestured at the man, but before the two of them could pick it up, they were stopped by the brunette.

"Wait, I want to see him before we head out." Shaundi said.

"You sure?" The Boss questioned her "I mean, can you take it?"

"Yeah..." She said, "I'm ready."

The blue haired woman opened the coffin to reveal the body of their fallen comrade, wearing a black suit. The damage done to his body was inhumane, no person deserved that.

"It's horrible..." The Boss commented on the scars on his face. The doctors said they had to stitch his stomach back together. It looked like the second-in-command was tortured.

A tear went down Shaundi's cheek. "He looks so unusual..." His face didn't look quite as Shaundi remembered it to be.

"It’s probably ‘cause of the scars." Lina replied.

Shaundi gently went over his cheek with her hand "I'm sorry, Johnny." She said under her breath, as she moved her hand back against his body. "Close it, I'm done." The lieutenant pulled out a tissue and wiped her cheek, as she tried to remain calm in front of the others. The Boss closed the coffin and locked it with a key, as she turned towards Shaundi and hugged her.

"It's okay to cry, sweetie." She rubbed the lieutenant's back.

"I know" Shaundi sighed "Just... Not right now."

However, their emotional moment was interrupted by Pierce entering the hanger in his car. "Hey, guys. We ready?" The man said as he was getting out of his car.

“You’re late.” Boss berated the man, as he was approaching the coffin.

“Sorry,” Pierce held his flat cap, as he was tucking it on his head “Had some work to finish, won’t happen again.”

Shaundi rolled her eyes as Pierce’s excuse. She didn’t like the way Pierce treated the whole situation. Years ago, he would be the most responsible person in the gang, he would be organizing this funeral. But now, after years of being spoiled by fame and attention from the public, he stopped caring. He no longer dedicated himself to always be early, and to always think outside the box.

"C'mon, Oleg. Grab the opposite side from me." Lina walked to the one end of the coffin, where his legs laid. As Oleg was taller, she wanted him to carry the upper part of the coffin so that the deceased man wouldn't flip over. The two of them raised the coffin and slowly carried the man into the back of the Hearse.

Once the coffin was inside, The Boss ran her hand over it. She missed her second-hand man. He was her best friend; someone she spent a lot of her time with. It has been only a week and she felt the impact his death left on her. Now, there was a huge hole left in the Boss' heart.

The blue haired woman closed the Hearse's back door. "Oleg, get on the back of the Criminal, Shaundi you take the wheel." She commanded them, before heading for the driver's seat of the Reaper herself.

"Wait, you sure about this?" Shaundi stopped her before she entered the car.

"What do ya mean?" She asked, she didn't quite enjoy being questioned by her lieutenants.

"Well, you're driving Johnny in the back... And you're not the most careful driver." It wasn't a secret that Boss would drive her cars fast, sometimes even recklessly. The lieutenant just wanted to make sure Gat's funeral went as smoothly as possible.

"Fine." She understood what the lieutenant's intentions were "Pierce, take the wheel."

"You got it, Boss." Pierce replied, as the Boss took the shotgun seat of the Hearse.

The convoy headed out of the Saints private hanger and onto the streets, as few other purple vehicles had joined them. They were part of Fuego’s crew, who were instructed to provide lieutenants with an escort, but to wait outside the hanger. The protection wasn’t really needed, if the Boss had any suspicions something bad would happen, they wouldn’t be organizing this funeral. Pierce drove carefully through the city, as he slowly made his way to Shivington. There was no conversation going on between them, just silence, as they quietly thought about Gat, and what he meant to the Saints; what he meant to the three of them. He was a friend, a mentor, and a damn good fighter. Some even saw him as an older brother, who watched after the rest of the Saints as if they were his own family. And in a way, they were his family.

The convoy finally made its way to the newly rebuilt bridge, as the Boss rolled her eyes at the plaque that had ‘Hughes Memorial Bridge’ written on it. The last thing that man needed was to have a bridge named after him. But alas, it was one of Ultor’s many ways to suck up to his widow in order to remain on her good side. After all, Monica Hughes did hire the Saints some time ago to devalue Ultor’s property for not keeping her husband’s name in the Ultor Initiative, which gave Ultor a valuable lesson on why they should keep the senator on their good side. As for the Boss’ worry, maybe tomorrow she’ll end up sending someone to destroy all those plaques with the bridge’s name on it.

“Fuck me running, the ceremony isn’t over yet?” Boss commented, as the Saints convoy stopped in front of the red tape.

“Looks like it’s about the start.” Pierce eyed the former Mayor of Stilwater in the back, with her pretentious laugh, talking with the reporters and her cabinet staff members. The man looked at the clock on the Reaper’s dashboard “Shit, looks like we’re a bit early.”

The ceremony was going to begin in a minute, and the press was about to begin rolling their cameras. Once the cameras started rolling, Senator Hughes began her speech, dedicated to her husband and her hometown. The Saints braced themselves for her long speech, none of them liked Monica, nor did they pretend to have any respect for the former mayor. The speech was quite boring, and she was dragging it as always, while the four Saints wanted to get to Gat’s place as soon as possible.

Suddenly, the ceremony was violently disrupted by an unknown entity. The blue haired woman got out the window of the Reaper and looked to the back of the huge line of cars waiting for the bridge to open, to see three trucks breaking through the crowd, pushing a few cars aside, and going over a few more. The big guy was riding on the back of each of them, none of the tall as a brute, but still around Boss’ height. The three men pulled out AR200 SAW LMGs, each of them two, and started shooting at the purple cars in front of the line. The light machine gun’s fire seemed endless, but luckily, the accuracy at distance wasn’t as good. Lina fired two shots from her .45 Shephard at the trucks, one of which hit the headlight of the first truck, right before tapping the top of the Reaper’s roof, signaling Pierce to floor it. The Saints vehicles stepped on it, breaking the red tape the senator was about to cut, causing the crowd behind it to run for the cover. The Boss got back inside the car as she got comfortable in her seat. She wanted to draw their fire away from the bridge; somewhere the Saints would have an advantage over six machine guns with their sidearms, maybe even call in a few more cars as a backup in a fight.

“Who are these guys?” Shaundi yelled out of the Criminal she was driving, referring to the masked men in green trucks. However, the Boss couldn’t hear her in the midst of chase, despite both of their windows being wide open.

It wasn’t long before the fire took out one of the two Saints cars following the lieutenants. Its tires were shot, causing the driver to lose control of his vehicle and crash it. The car got hit by one of the green trucks, and got swung off the bridge and into the cold waters of the Stilwater Canal.

“What the Hell?” Lina commented on it, before peeking out of the window again and starting to shoot them. The headlights blinded her, but she still tried to hit the driver’s head with her .45 Shepherd. The bullet fire broke the windshield, but none of them hit the driver. One of the bullets from the machine guns hit the Boss, piercing through her shoulder, which caused her to drop her Shephard.

“Goddamn it!” She crawled back inside the car and sat down.

“You okay, Boss?” Pierce turned his head towards the Boss.

“Yeah, yeah, just a flesh wound.” She replied. While the Face of the Saints was focused on her, he didn’t notice the other side of the bridge. The building rooftops were filled with unknown assailants, who had just launched an armada of rockets. “WATCH OUT!” The Boss yelled out, pointing at eight incoming missiles.

“Oh shit!” The man focused back on driving again, successfully dodging the rockets. Shaundi did as well, but the third car, a Scorpion Torch, wasn’t so lucky, and was directly hit by a rocket. The remaining rockets hit the road, breaking the debris apart. It took two of the enemy vehicles with it, causing them to fall into the freezing river. It wasn’t long before the bridge started fully collapsing from the impact, as one of the bridge towers started to break apart too.

“Step on it!” The Boss yelled, making sure both Pierce and Shaundi heard it. The part of the tower broke loose, and started to fall straight down, as both of the remaining Saints cars started driving at its top speed. Luckily, they made it through just in time, but the last green truck didn’t. It exploded once the debris crushed it.

“We did it… We made it through.” Pierce sighed in relief, as he started to laugh. For a minute there, he thought they would get crushed by the collapsing bridge. However, luck was on their side tonight.

Pierce looked back to see if there were any more cars following them, not paying attention to the front. He looked back front just to be met with a terrible sight; another rocket was headed straight for the Hearse. The man tried to steer away from it, but it was too late, and both of the cars were launched off the bridge by the blast of the rocket; causing 4 Saints to find themselves in the water.

Luckily, nobody but the Boss got injured, and the Saints managed to escape their sinking cars and swim back up to the surface of the water. The bridge was on fire from the attack on it, as the blue haired Boss was counting if her whole crew was there.

"Whoever this crew is, they float pretty damn good." Pierce commented on the lifeless body of a masked steroid pumped man that floated up to the surface, and the Face of the Saints grabbed on it for support.

"They're Killbane's thugs." Oleg replied, he knew Syndicate’s chain-of-command better than anyone else in the gang, though he was surprised that the Luchadores would attack the Saints only a few days after taking over their base of operations.

"Kill-who?" Lina asked. She never really cared about anyone else in the city except for the Morningstar. She had no interest in taking over some rustbelt dump, and instead only focused on avenging her best friend. Blowing up the tower was supposed to be a message of what happens to anyone who wishes to mess with the Saints. From the looks of it, taking over the tower instead of blowing up left the wrong message in Steelport.

"He's the Syndicate's attack dog." As Loren and the rest of the Morningstar were more of tacticians, Luchadores were the muscles. His role within the Syndicate was similar to Fuego’s in the Saints, except the Boss’ assassin wouldn’t be bold enough to attack his enemies in the middle of a city.

"What he did to Johnny's funeral,” Shaundi spoke up, her voice was filled with rage as she barely held her tears back “that's over the fucking limit."

"He doesn't care about rules of engagement."

"No rules?” Lina smirked, thinking about how she would snap his neck in half “I can work with that."

"You're not ready to fight the Syndicate." Oleg interrupted her, but before he could continue, he was interrupted by the female lieutenant.

"Watch us." Shaundi said, with anger in her voice.

"Relax, Shaundi.” The Boss stopped Shaundi, before turning back to Oleg “Alright big man, what do you got?"

"There are others who hate the Syndicate as much as you do.” Strapped to the cloning machine for years now, Oleg knows a thing or two about how Syndicate worked, and who opposed them. “I will take you to them." He had an intel on someone, a hacker who tried taking down the Deckers before they found her. Hopefully, she’d be able to help locate others.

“Good.” The Boss replied. “We’re going back to Steelport. Right now.”

“How’s your shoulder?” Pierce referred to the bullet hole in it.

“Getting better.” She looked at the bullet hole, the injury started to heal itself. It looked like she scraped her shoulder, and not have a bullet go through the middle of it. Regeneration was one of the major perks of being a mutant. “Let’s get to the shore and call the rest. Then we’re heading back there to end them.”

“Gotchu.” Pierce said, as the four of them started to swim towards the small riverside walkway, on the Downtown side of Stilwater.

"And what about Johnny's funeral?" Shaundi pressed.

"We'll continue it once we finish the rest of the Syndicate." Lina assured her lieutenant.

"I meant what are we going to do with the body?" The brunette elaborated, "You know, the one that sank to the bottom of the fucking river!"

“I’ll let Rosie and the others handle it.” The Boss replied to her, after which Shaundi sighed “They handled worse, I’m sure Fuego has some tricks in his sleeve. We should focus on the Syndicate for now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AND ACT 1 IS FINALLY DONE!
> 
> Thank you all for reading this so far, I really enjoyed writing these intro chapter, but the real part begins in the following chapters. At one point I pointed out how Gat's body looks different, this won't be addressed ever again in this fic, but my idea behind it was that his body isn't real, but a decoy left by Zinyak. That's how the Saints never suspected Gat might actually be alive until SR4, because they all saw his dead body.  
> Huge thanks to That_Singa/classicsinga for proof reading all the chapters so far.


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